At just seven-years-old, *Pedro has already had a hard life.  He’s small for his age, rarely makes eye contact with others and has the countenance of a boy who is very familiar with hardship. Pedro is one of 100 children Convoy of Hope feeds every school day in a tiny village in Honduras — a remarkable number considering there are only a few hundred people in this rural area.

“He spends most of his time here at school now,” says Irma de Medina, the director of the program. “Before he came into the program a few months ago he was malnourished, drank alcohol and smoked cigarettes.”

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To get him into Convoy of Hope’s feeding program — and ultimately school — Medina relied on bartering. “I traded him snacks for cigarettes at the gates of our school,” she says.

Since Pedro enrolled, he and older brother, Miguel, have gained weight and are learning to read and do math. They’re also learning how it feels to be cared for and loved. “I like the school and the food,” offers Miguel. “It gives me energy.”

Convoy of Hope now feeds more than 3,300 children in Honduras on a daily basis and more than 120,000 in seven countries.

*Name has been changed.