May 13 | 
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Mary’s Meals seeks help of PhD student
A partnership project between Hull University and Mary’s Meals—set to produce valuable new research to help the charity with its international work tackling the challenges of poverty and malnutrition—is looking for applicants.
Mary’s Meals, which provides school meals for more than 526,000 children in countries such as Malawi, Liberia and Haiti, is to be the subject of a PhD scholarship based at the university, looking at the impact of its school feeding programmes.
“We know that providing children with a meal a day in their place of education draws them into school and has a positive effect on their health, school attendance and academic performance,” Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, Mary’s Meals chief executive, said.
“We hope that this research will take our knowledge to the next level, helping us to become even more effective and ensuring that our projects give children the best possible chance of escaping poverty in the long term.”
Existing research shows that hunger is one of the main reasons that the world’s poorest children do not go to school, and that providing one nutritious meal every day in school can significantly improve attainment.
Mary’s Meals staff continually monitor the programme’s impact in key areas such as school enrolment and attendance, but this will be the first time the charity’s work has benefited from extended academic research.
One of the aims of the project will be to develop a new framework through which Mary’s Meals can further develop and evaluate its own work.
“The university has been researching school feeding projects for some time as part of our work on food, health and education,” Professor Derek Colquhoun, from Hull University, who will be supervising the PhD, said.
“We have been impressed by the work that Mary’s Meals does and hope that this study will have far-reaching benefits, adding value for the charity, the individual student selected, and the university.”
— The successful student, who will have a degree at 2:1 or above in a relevant subject, will be based at Hull University’s Faculty of Education, which is meeting the costs of the research and stipend, and will work closely with Mary’s Meals staff in Scotland and overseas. The deadline for applications is the end of May.
— For further information visit the Mary’s Meals website at: http://www.marysmeals.org.uk
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