By Richard Kagunda

Kasungu, September 19, Mana: Quality Assurance Officer for Chankhanga Education Zone in Kasungu District, Kelvin Chima says school feeding programmes are crucial in ensuring high school enrollment and class attendance in the face of food insecurity amongst some households in rural communities.

Chima said this on Wednesday when Mary's Meals launched a school feeding programme at Kadula Primary School in the area of Senior Chief Mwase in Kasungu.

"I am glad that the feeding programme in Chankhanga Zone has been extended to Kadula and four other primary schools. This initiative is vital to schools like this one in that, some of the learners here come from poor families that cannot provide food for their children.

"We are aware that most learners prefer going far away schools that have feeding programme leaving behind schools that are close to them but do not have the programme," Chima said.

He appealed to the community members in the area to show ownership of the initiative by taking good care of the stuff that Mary's Meals brought and participating in the programme activities.

Group Village Head Chinkhobwe expressed excitement with the commencement of the programme at the school, describing it as a step towards achieving good education outcomes on the part of learners.

"We have been looking for a programme like this one at our school. We expect learners to perform to their best now that they will no longer complain about being hungry while in class," he said.

School Feeding Manager for Mary's Meals (Malawi), Jacob Khumalo said his organization is expanding the programme by adopting more schools to reach out to more learners.

"Currently in Malawi, we are reaching out to over 1 million learners but our aim for the expansion is to reach out to 1.4 million.

"In Kasungu we had 16 schools but now we have added six more. We aim to end hunger and promote education, especially in lower classes in primary schools," Khumalo said.

The school feeding programme by Mary's Meals in Malawi started in 2002 with 200 learners.