Iceland Supports School Meals for Children in Malawi

A new home-grown school meals project, funded by Iceland and implemented by the World Food Programme (WFP), was recently launched in Nkhotakota District in Malawi. Representatives from the Embassy of Iceland in Lilongwe attended a special inauguration event, alongside Malawi’s Minister of Basic and Secondary Education and the WFP Country Director. The event took place at Dzikondilose Primary School, one of the schools benefiting from Iceland’s development cooperation in Malawi.

The project will ensure that approximately ten thousand primary school children in Nkhotakota District receive a hot meal daily for the next three years, made using ingredients sourced from local farmers. Notably, Iceland was the first donor country to support home-grown school meals for learners in Malawi.

Through this initiative, children now receive nutritious meals prepared from seasonal produce, while local farmers benefit from a reliable market for their goods, encouraging more diverse agricultural practices.

School meals have a transformative impact on the lives of children in poor communities and serve as an effective intervention in development. Home-grown school meals enhance sustainability and not only improve school attendance, learning outcomes, and child nutrition but also generate broad multiplier effects across the community.

Positive Impacts in the Short and Long Term

There are strong synergies between the school meals initiative and Iceland’s district development programme in Nkhotakota, which includes the upgrading of 15 primary schools. This support involves the construction of classrooms, toilets, and teacher housing, learning materials, the development of school kitchens, improved access to school meals and clean water, and the installation of solar energy systems. District authorities will also receive support to strengthen inclusive education.  Iceland’s support aims to improve the learning environment for children in a holistic manner.

School meals generate both immediate and long-term benefits, with every dollar invested yielding substantial returns through strengthened human capital and a more resilient economy. They also provide a vital safety net in times of food insecurity, as many children rely on them as their only hot meal of the day. The new initiative comes at a critical time, as Malawi continues to grapple with the effects of the El Niño-induced drought, which caused widespread crop failure last year and severely affected national food security.

Since 2012, the Government of Iceland, in partnership with the World Food Programme, has supported home-grown school meals in Mangochi District, benefitting approximately thirteen thousand children in ten schools. Around 1,500 smallholder farmers in the district produce the food and receive training and support from WFP.

The World Food Programme is a priority humanitarian partner for Iceland and also collaborates with Iceland on home-grown school meal initiatives in the bilateral partner countries Uganda and Sierra Leone. Iceland is also a member of the international School Meals Coalition.