Mary’s Meals

Mary’s Meals – Chartwells making a difference in Malawi

Last year Chartwells funded two kitchens in Malawi through our initiative with Mary’s meals. In February 2013 a number of the team visited Malawi to see how the kitchens are changing the lives of children. The experience will live long in our memories. The excitement of visitors coming to their schools and speaking to the children and the teachers was evident. The smell of wood burning and heat in the kitchens was something to experience. Women with babies strapped onto their backs prepared the 2000+ meals for each school. Children stood in line and waited as their cups were filled with porridge and not a drop was wasted. It was evident the level of malnutrition with a large proportion of the children, but gratefully the porridge they are now receiving will go some way in combating this. One of the days we were privileged to be a part of the handing out of backpacks to some 800 children.

The overriding memory is how class by class they sat in silence until each child had received their bag and the moment they were allowed to open the bags the volume of noise that filled each room. Little girls standing in a line for us to show them their new clothes in their bags and then showing them off to others in the group.

Our abiding memory will be watching hundreds of children running up a hill in torrential rain to get home and show off their backpacks to their families.

If you would like your school to be included in this scheme all you need to do is email fiona.lynch@compass-group.co.uk registering your interest with an email address for Mary’s Meals to contact you. Mary’s Meals provide an extensive range of free material to support schools in all aspects of the curriculum including: Global Citizenship, PSHE, English Politics, Media, Geography and History for primary and secondary ages.