Students lining up for lunch
Free School Meals Program
Theory of Change
Increase school enrollment and student health by providing breakfast and lunch to students whose families could not otherwise feed them during the school day. All of our government primary school partners reside in communities with high levels of extreme poverty (<$1.90/day).
Lunch is prepared daily onsite by an mpishi (cook) with the menu consisting of ugali (cornmeal), maharague (beans), makonde (a bean stew), mchicha (spinach), and/or rice pilau. Fresh vegetables are served 2-3 times per week and sourced from a neighboring community-run farm named Oljoro. In 2016, the program was expanded to provide breakfast (uji, a traditional porridge) to all three schools, in addition to lunch.
Click on the images below to learn more about each of our partner schools.
400 Students
568 Students
Goals
(1) Provide breakfast and lunch to 2,189 students at 3 schools in the Kilimanjaro region.
(2) Decrease rates of malnutrition and anemia in primary students.
(3) Promote access to education, increase school attendance & improve exam scores.
Impact
Student enrollment, attendance and exam scores has steadily improved since the beginning of the Free School Meals launch in 2016.
We are grateful to the school and community leadership in our three partner communities for their continued support.
Students lined up to wash hands before eating lunch
Students eating lunch outside
Funding
The Free School Meals Program is currently funded by the Lalafofofo General Fund. In the past we have had sister schools based in the U.S. partner with one or all of our Tanzanian schools.
If you’re school or educational organization is interested in partnering with one of our schools, please reach out to us at info@lalafofofo.org.
If you would like to make an individual donation to the General Fund please click on the button below.
Gaudy and Bertha with food delivery