Mary's Meals in Malawi: Food + School = Hope
By Francesca Merlo
In different countries, across different cultures, money carries a different significance, food is perceived differently - even words take on a new weight. My “I’m hungry” is a far cry from the reality faced by the five million children enduring the hunger crisis in Malawi. And when encountering a world so distant from our own, the best we can do is to shorten distances by listening to people's stories and understanding their needs.
With humility, concrete action, and a life-changing impact, the charity Mary’s Meals is offering a vital lifeline to struggling communities across the world, by communicating with them, learning their needs, and working with them to better their situation. Theirs is a battle against world hunger - while staying out of the spotlight and keeping the focus on those in need.
You may have skimmed over the phrase “five million children”. As numbers and slogans flood our screens, we have become increasingly “numbed” by data and statistics. But this is not just a statistic. Each number - from 1 to 5,000,000 - is a child, with a face, a story, and a potential to be reached, but without any food. And through Mary’s Meals, with the money you would spend on a couple of beers with friends, you can feed a child for an entire year.
Amos is the first boy I spoke to during my trip to Malawi with Mary’s Meals. Aged nine, he is the youngest of five siblings and lives alone with his older brother. Their parents have moved to South Africa in search of work. Their home is an hour’s walk from the nearest village and every school day, come rain or shine, Amos sets off while the roads are still dark. On the weekends, he doesn’t eat. Why? Because the only meal he receives is the one prepared by the volunteers in charge of cooking and distributing the porridge provided by Mary’s Meals at the village school.
Amos is one of 1500 children attending Dzunga Primary School. Some of them walk 2 km, 5 km, and even 10 km each day to reach their classroom. Before the porridge programme was implemented, over half of those children stayed at home, far from food and far from education. While Mary’s Meals is feeding 1.1 million children across Malawi, 5 million more are hungry - most with nowhere to walk to for food.
About 400 metres across from Dzunga Primary School, as the children queue for their porridge, a similar queue is forming. The men from the village wait for a government representative to come and sell them maize. I’m told they’ve been waiting for days, and that when the representative does come, there is no way there will be enough for everyone.
Since Cyclone Freddy devastated Malawi in 2023 and a terrible drought followed, deep-seated poverty has been compounded by emergencies: climate, hunger, agriculture…This year the rains came late and the maize that these communities rely on is stunted. What has always been the people's most reliable source of income and food - grain - should be harvested these days, but instead, it only reaches their waists.
As we make our way to Tionge’s house, we wade through the maize. She’s a volunteer at Dzunga Primary School and the mother of four children enrolled in the school. Someone suggests we drive but she insists we walk because “you should see how far it is.” The house is on a hill overlooking the gorgeous green valley. But in contrast to the luscious environment, her home is barren. A couple of chickens run inside looking for something to peck; there is nothing and they quickly exit the way they came. There are no windows. Three plastic cups hang on the wall, some farming utensils are spread across the floor alongside an empty plastic bottle and a cooking pot. The question is obvious. “Where do you sleep?” Tionge points to the floor - the dust floors serve as a bed for her and her children in the dry season, but in the wet season, “the rain leaks in and it’s a little less comfortable.”
Tionge does piece jobs when she can to try and buy enough food for the day, at times working on other people’s land. Sometimes they pay her by giving her a bucket of maize. Her son, Desire, has walked up with us, racing ahead with his friend. He tells us that the porridge programme has changed his life, as “before, I used to sit in class and could not even write because I was shivering so much from the hunger”. He’s 12 but tiny. His friend echoes Desire’s story and describes the pain he feels in his stomach when he hasn’t eaten for days.
With Mary's Meals, neither the children nor the parents have to worry about where to find food. The porridge programme means parents do not have to face the "embarrassment" of working in someone else's fields rather than their own. Yet, even with this little victory, in these rural communities, the climate crisis has aggravated an already difficult situation, and the emergency spans all across Southern Africa.
As we leave Dzunga Primary School, the children chase after us, waving. Some shout, “Thank you Mary’s Meals”. They are still hungry and still struggling, but they are learning, growing, and dreaming. “I want to be a teacher,” says Desire. Mary wants to be a bank manager and Amos a doctor.
A full stomach takes these kids far beyond mere survival. It gives them energy to run, to play, to absorb knowledge. It means the possibility of a future beyond hunger. Mary’s Meals is not just feeding children but fuelling their potential, their future.
With just €22, Mary's Meals can change a child's life and care for them for an entire year. It's not just about giving money but providing food and education. "Food + School = Hope" they say – and this has been witnessed by so many children and families in Malawi and across the world.
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