{"id":1047,"date":"2025-06-27T08:04:36","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T08:04:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/?p=1047"},"modified":"2025-06-27T08:04:36","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T08:04:36","slug":"three-years-of-piku-pihi-a-journey-of-food-equity-and-hope-%f0%9f%8d%b1%e2%9d%a4%ef%b8%8f","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/?p=1047","title":{"rendered":"Three Years of Piku Pihi \u2014 A Journey of Food, Equity, and Hope \ud83c\udf71\u2764\ufe0f"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Today, we celebrate three years of the Piku Pihi School Meal Program \u2014 a journey that began with a simple but urgent mission:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To ensure that no child is too hungry to learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We started at a time when Sri Lanka was facing its worst economic crisis in recent history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schools were closed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reopening wasn\u2019t even a priority for many.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But we knew \u2014 if we didn\u2019t act now, a generation could fall behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so we acted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We looked to post-war Japan, where communities rebuilt their children\u2019s health and dignity through school meals. We adapted that model to our soil \u2014 a system built not on charity, but on dignity, community, and love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Piku Pihi became a space where:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thousands of warm meals were served to children in need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teachers and principals stood alongside us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parents quietly and bravely supported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Children themselves helped \u2014 cooking, cleaning, organising \u2014 learning that giving back is a part of growing up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Piku Pihi was never just about food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also fight for English and computer literacy \u2014 tools that can break cycles of poverty and open new doors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While many talk about equal education, we believe in something more powerful:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udc49 Equitable education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not giving the same to everyone, but giving each child what they need to thrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For some, that\u2019s a meal. For others, a computer. For another, a word of encouragement in a language they dream in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, as we look back on these three years, our hearts are full.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83e\udde1 To our donors \u2014 named and unnamed \u2014 your kindness feeds more than bodies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83e\udde1 To our teachers and principals \u2014 thank you for the space, time, and trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83e\udde1 To the parents \u2014 thank you for standing with us, often silently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83e\udde1 And to the children \u2014 thank you for reminding us every day why this matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to know more, visit our website or scroll through our Facebook journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the true impact is not in photos or posts \u2014 it\u2019s in the smiles of children, the sparkle in their eyes, and the strength in their hearts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is just the beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With love and gratitude,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 The Piku Pihi Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, we celebrate three years of the Piku Pihi School Meal Program \u2014 a journey that began with a simple but urgent mission: To ensure that no child is too hungry to learn. We started at a time when Sri Lanka was facing its worst economic crisis in recent history. Schools were closed. Reopening wasn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,1,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-educational-scholarship-programmes","category-food-programmes","category-school-infrastructure-development-programmes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1000048296.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1047"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1051,"href":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1047\/revisions\/1051"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}