Providing a lifeline to children in Southern Africa

It’s hard to comprehend how a weather event thousands of miles away can impact farmers in Southern Africa. But it does, and over recent months this impact has been catastrophic in the region. Without major intervention in early 2025, millions of people – especially children – will face “Crisis” levels of hunger.  

The Mary’s Meals school feeding model – the promise of a nutritious meal for children in their place of education every school day – is helping to support families in these difficult times through making limited family rations stretch further.  

Drought is severely impacting food insecurity  

The El Niño weather cycle, which can cause extremes of both drought and wet weather, has had a devastating effect on crop planting and harvesting across Southern Africa over the last three years.  

In October 2024, a third successive seasonal planting window was disrupted by unusually high temperatures and lack of rain. For subsistence farmers working their own smallholdings, this has been catastrophic. Not only have their crops failed to thrive leaving little to harvest, but food has become scarce and more expensive. For example, the cost of maize and cooking oil has doubled in the last year.  

The challenges facing farmers go beyond poor harvests and rising food costs, too. In Malawi, the cost of fertilizer has risen by approximately 64% since 2023 making it impossible for many families to afford. Given the 2024 sowing conditions, the next harvest season in April/May 2025, is also likely to be meagre.  

Countries that have already declared drought disasters include Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Others in the region, including Mozambique where we recently established a school feeding program, are also severely affected.  

Extreme weather is creating food shortages  

Angela Chipeta-Khonje, Country Director for Mary’s Meals in Malawi – where we serve more than a million children every school day – explains why this current drought cycle is having such a serious impact.  

“Across Southern Africa, an estimated 21 million children are currently malnourished and we can see there is risk of a full-scale humanitarian disaster,” she says. “Disruptive weather patterns, including extreme temperatures, unprecedented drought and flash flooding, are felt deeply in this region because there are so many smallholder farmers relying on rain-fed agriculture for their survival.”  

“The situation has hit crop and livestock production, causing food shortages and damaging the economy. We know that families have very little to get them through to the next harvest, and we anticipate the 2025 harvest will be very lean.”  

The risk of a full-scale humanitarian disaster  

In Zambia, the drought situation is causing widespread disruption at national and family levels. Mary’s Meals’ Country Director Panji Kajani has first-hand experience of this. He says: “In Zambia, like much of Southern Africa, we rely heavily on hydroelectricity. With river levels low and reservoirs at less than a third of their capacity, we are all subject to electricity rationing.”  

“This affects everyone from small businesses and large industrial operations to individual families in towns who have to rely on generators, pushing up the price of fuel and causing shortages." 

“For rural communities, the impact is even more acute. We know of many families who would usually harvest 20 bags of maize from their plot, who have just five bags to last their family until the next harvest. Knowing that some of their children will receive a meal at school makes the difference between that grain running out in January or lasting until March.”  

Feeding more children across Southern Africa  

The Mary’s Meals school feeding program – feeding children in their place of education every school day – provides a lifeline to families with dwindling food stocks and also helps to promote access to education in places where poverty and hunger are significant barriers to learning.  

Mary’s Meals CEO and Founder Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow says: “We need to expand school feeding as fast as possible into areas of acute need across Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Our program is owned by and embedded in local communities, equipping them to provide vital school meals for their children in an effective and sustainable way. We know school feeding works and we know our program is scalable. With your urgent help, we can work quickly to reach many thousands more vulnerable children with much-needed meals while they learn.”  

With so many children across Southern Africa in critical need, your support for our work – no matter how big or small – is more important than ever.  

It costs just $25.20 to provide a child with school meals for an entire school year. Mary’s Meals is currently serving nutritious daily meals to more than 1.5 million children in schools across Southern Africa. Now, more than ever, your support is needed to spread the word about our work and the emergency in the region. With your support, we can reach hundreds of thousands more children waiting for our daily meals