Research

Hi y’all!

This week in my PR Publications course I will be designing a business card and letterhead for an organization of my choice. I decided to choose an organization very near and dear to my heart, the global organization Mary’s Meals. I am currently the PR chair for a branch of the organization that was brought to the University of Oklahoma. I have been involved with OU Mary’s Meals since the end of my freshman year. For this assignment, I am analyzing the state of the current organization’s resources, processes and overall values.

Let’s start off by addressing these 3 questions:

What is your organization’s mission–the service or product it sells?

According to the marysmealsusa.org website,

“Mary’s Meals is a global movement supported by people from many walks of life and different backgrounds.

Our mission is to enable people to offer their money, goods, skills, time, or prayer, and through this involvement, provide the most effective help to those suffering the effects of extreme poverty in the world’s poorest communities.

We welcome all into the Mary’s Meals family and we believe everyone has something important to contribute to the realization of our vision.”

Mary’s Meals has the vision that every child will receive one daily meal in their place of education. In addition, all of those who have more than they need will share with those who lack basic things to survive. The organization sets up school feeding projects (such as building kitchens onto schools) in third world countries where children are unable to attend school and forced to stay at home and tend to their families. Here at the University of Oklahoma, we are raising the funds to donate to Mary’s Meals so they can build a kitchen onto a school in our honor.

What sets Mary’s Meals apart is that they purchase locally grown produce from the organizations in which the kitchens are built. This allows the community’s economy to grow and ensures that the children in the area are receiving the correct nutrients from their ground, opposed to processed food shipped over from another place.

Who are its main competitors?

Mary’s Meals is a non-profit organization, therefore I would say the competition includes any non-profit organization that is also hoping to end world hunger and poverty. This is somewhat tricky because each organization is truly doing amazing things and they are all working towards the same goal, but I do think there is competition when it comes to the amount of people informed more about certain organizations. Of course Mary’s Meals wants donations from those who are able to donate, but they must consider the vast amount of other organizations that people might be donating too instead of them. Some organizations include:

• Stop Hunger Now
• Project Bread
• The Hunger Project

What are your organization’s most dominant attitudes and core values?

According to the Mary’s Meals Statement of Values, ” Our values underpin all our work and should be shared by all those involved in carrying out our mission (from those involved in fundraising right through to volunteers living and working in the impoverished communities we are helping)” 

Mary’s Meals has confidence in the innate goodness of people.
Mary’s Meals respects the dignity of every human being and family life.
Mary’s Meals believes in good stewardship of resources entrusted to them.