 School meals are a major component in the MoEST School Health and Nutrition (SHN) programme  World Food Programme started supporting the Government of Malawi to implement schools meals programme 1999 in 22 schools covering over 22,000 children  WFP has also been providing technical assistance to the GoM.

Total # of primary schoolsTotal number of learners Public 5,400 Pvt 170 Public 4,996,831 Pvt 37,389 School Meals Coverage Universal SMP target (5225 schools) WFP (Centralized model) Marys Meals (MM) Others (Centralized Model) Govt (Home Grown school meals medel) ,735, TOTAL2,0440 1,735,500 0 Proportion of support (%) 37 34

 There are three models that have been identified Nationally sourcedLocally produced food Food procurement from small scale farmers Funds managed by district / school Fresh, diversified meals Centralized Direct funding to schools / school gardens Home Grown (PAA Africa)

 PAA Africa: partnership between GoM, GoB, WFP and FAO for HGSF;  Increase smallholder farmers’ capacities in productivity, storage management, group marketing and market engagement, in order to raise income from agricultural activities  Identify and implement best practices for increasing sales by low income smallholder farmers to markets  Provision of support in areas such as marketing, food processing and storage, so that they can supply quality food to the schools.

School meals programme that distributes locally produced food of the right quality and quantity to children in targeted schools at the right time and increases knowledge about use of locally available food. Empower schools to be autonomous in managing their own funds Empower communities to provide nutritious foods for their school going children and to apply lessons learned in their homes. Increase smallholder farmers’ capacities in productivity, storage management, group marketing and market engagement, in order to raise income from agricultural activities

Farmer organization identification / registration Crops / production potential of the areas Menu planning /preparation Price info dissemination Food storage (central WH / School) Commodity / WH management Quality control Cost/child/day

 Every year we introduce home grown school meals in 2 schools per zone.  The funds are from national budget.  However, other development partners are coming to support the initiative.  Main challenge is infrastructure inform of kitchen, storerooms, feeding shelter.  Capacity building for the front line staff in order to address the critical issues mentioned.