Powering education for children in Malawi
Tens of thousands of volunteers support Mary’s Meals by serving school meals, even while facing poverty themselves. As we celebrate feeding over 3 million children daily, two Malawian mothers share why being part of the programme matters.
Hunger is a barrier that often stands between children and their future in Malawi. For many families, daily life is a balancing act between securing enough food to survive and sending their children to school. Without a reliable source of nutrition, children struggle to concentrate in class and often don’t attend school at all. When food is scarce, education often takes a back seat.
But at Namingwere Primary School in southern Malawi, Mary’s Meals is transforming this narrative by providing a nutritious daily meal to the children every school day.
Overcoming hunger and hardship
Rose, a mother of three children who attend Namingwere and a Mary’s Meals volunteer at the school, is the main breadwinner in the family. Rose often does casual labour, such as working on other people’s farms or selling tomatoes, to feed her family. Yet, despite her efforts, there are times when her children don’t go to school because of hunger. “We experience hunger, just like everyone in the community,” she says. “There are days we go to bed without eating.
“My children would always leave school without eating, and when they come home after school, I can tell that they are so weak and tired because of the hunger.”
Similarly, Stella, another volunteer and single mother of two, has experienced the struggle of feeding her family and how hunger impacts her children’s enthusiasm for attending school. “I have raised my children as a single parent for the last five years,” she explains. “We don’t always have food, and they were hungry. I always had to force them to come to school.”
Encouraging children to attend school
Recognising the challenges across the community, Mary’s Meals recently began providing a daily mug of porridge to every child at Namingwere. The promise of a daily meal encourages children to attend school regularly, while the nourishment they receive helps them to concentrate and participate more actively in lessons.
Rose recalls the moment she learned that Mary’s Meals would serve porridge: “I was in disbelief. I didn’t think it would happen until I saw them coming to the school, bringing the materials,” she says. Today, she proudly volunteers for the school feeding programme, helping to prepare and serve the porridge so that every child can rely on a nourishing meal.
For Stella, volunteering is deeply personal. “I am very happy to volunteer because I have two children at the school,” she says. “The school feeding programme is good for families like mine. It helps me feed my children and lessens the burden when my children go to school without eating in the morning.”
Empowering parents, educating children
Both mothers emphasise the importance of education for their children and the community they live in. “Education allows people to make informed decisions,” Stella says. “If they are not informed, everything they do is out of ignorance.”
Rose echoes this sentiment: “My children going to school is their right,” she says. “When they come to school, they learn a lot about the world, and they gain skills that they can use even if they decide to travel outside of our community.”
For families and communities facing hunger and poverty in Malawi, our school feeding programme represents more than just a daily meal. It encourages children into the classroom, motivates them to learn and gives them the opportunity to receive an education. For mothers like Rose and Stella, school feeding offers relief by allowing them to redirect scarce household supplies and funds to other family needs – and volunteering also enables them to contribute to building a more resilient community.
Rose hopes her children will complete primary school and continue to secondary education – something she has never witnessed in her family. While Stella simply says: “I want my children to go further with their education and have a good job.”
It’s thanks to the dedication of volunteers, and the generosity of those who support our work through donations, awareness raising, and prayer that we are now serving life-changing school meals to over 3 million children in 16 countries. But there are still millions more children in need of Mary’s Meals. Your continued support will help us to reach the next child and the next school.
Just £19.15, €22, $25.20 USD or $31.70 CAD provides a child with daily meals for an entire school year. Mary’s Meals is now reaching more than 3 million children with a nutritious daily meal in their place of education. While we're proud of this milestone, there are millions more children who are still hungry and out of school. Join us in the fight to end to child hunger.