Meal Programs

Madame Samson's Neighborhood Meal Program

This program began in 1985 when Mme. Samson, a neighbor to Norwich Mission House, asked us to help in feeding some of the children in the area.

"They're starving, and many go all day without eating. They suffer from malnutrition," she said.

With help from Haitian Ministries, Mme. Samson began feeding children at her house. We gave her money to buy food--rice, beans and other staples--that she cooked at her tiny home. Children, bringing their bowls, came three days a week to have mid-day meals. For many, it was the only food they would have.

Over the years, the meal program grew. More children came, and more meals were served. Today, while still based at Mme. Samson's humble home in a crowded hillside neighborhood, the program has more than 70 children who come in two shifts, five days a week. They receive large servings of mid-day meals, vitamins and regular medication that protects against various intestinal parasites and disease. Another agency has joined Haitian Ministries to provide food, and we pay for a program manager to oversee and orchestrate the meals and to create and maintain records. A late afternoon snack has been added.

Why Meal Programs Are So Important

In Haiti, more than 70 percent of the population lives under the threshold of absolute poverty.

Many children in Port-au-Prince must rely on their on own wits to find food. Some are orphans. Some come from homes where there is little money to feed the family. And some are sent by their families in the provinces to live with relatives or others in the city in hopes they will find a better life.

Life is difficult, sometime dangerous and deadly.

The Voice of Hunger

"I don't want to die from hunger."
Another said:
"I don't have anything to eat."

Wilkens Gilbert, one of Mme. Samson's children, occasionally helps at the feeding program. Now a doctor and living with his wife (also a doctor) on the top floor of his mother's house, Wilkens wrote several years ago about the importance of the meals served there:

Socially, this program expresses solidarity between Haitians who want to help and missionaries who support activities in aid of deprived children, in accordance with God's prescriptions. One of the fundamental rights of children is alimentation, which is being encouraged by the feeding program. It also contributes to reduction of delinquency.

From a health standpoint, this program permits the reduction of malnutrition and starvation, which affect many young people of this country.

To summarize, we could say that the feeding program allows deprived children to shed some of their physical and psychological suffering.

Thank you for your support. -Gilbert Wilkens