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Mozambique School Lunch Initiative
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Three laughing girls hold hands with their arms outstretched in a ring game on a sandy schoolyard, trees and a cloudy sky behind them

A full plate. A full mind.

Mozambicans in Chókwè started feeding hungry children in the 2016 drought. Over ten years later, MSLI is still headquartered in Chókwè, feeding 30,000+ children every school day across 254 schools in rural communities of Mozambique.

GiveSee the results
30,000+
children fed every school day.
254
schools across Gaza Province, Mozambique.
6 million+
meals served to date.
A smiling young boy in a red sweater vest holds his orange plate of xima, beans and greens toward the camera at an outdoor serving line

Our mission

Our mission is to improve child nutrition and education in Mozambique, fundamental pillars for a child to grow and thrive.

School feeding: the MSLI way

One anchor, doing more for every child.

A daily meal brings a child to school, every day. This daily nourishment is what makes everything else we do possible, and amplifies its impact throughout the community.

As the child grows, so do we.

Where possible, we layer on preschool and Avança+, so our support follows a child from her first classroom to her last.

  1. 01 · ages 2–5

    Preschool

    Early childhood education, so children start primary school ready to learn.

  2. 02 · grades 1–6

    Primary school

    The anchor. A hot lunch that brings children to class, every day.

    2016 · Jossefina's first MSLI lunch, in 3rd grade

  3. 03 · grades 7–12

    Avança+

    Transport, mentoring and health support through grade 12.

    Today · Jossefina, 19, in 12th grade

A daily meal at every stage

Jossefina Ubisse, a young woman with long braids in a black-and-white varsity jacket and a long black skirt, arms crossed, in front of a yellow school building

Growing up with MSLI

Meet Jossefina.

19 · 12th grade, Manjangue Secondary School

In 2016, I started receiving school lunches through MSLI. I was in the third grade. Today, I am 19 years old and am in the 12th grade.

I take the MSLI school bus from my village to Manjangue Secondary School each day, and enjoy the English lessons at MSLI's Center of Excellence in the afternoons.

After I graduate from secondary school, I want to go to teacher training to become a biology teacher. I also hope my younger brothers and sisters will continue to benefit from MSLI's programs.

We follow the child, stage by stage.

One daily meal is the reason a child comes to school. It is the anchor for every other program MSLI delivers.

  1. A young girl sitting on red sand with a bowl of xima and beans, smiling at the camera

    Preschool, ages 2–5

    Breakfast, lunch and early learning in free community preschools.

    1,440 children in 14 preschools (2026)

  2. Two cooks serve xima from a large pot onto the plate of a girl in a blue school uniform

    Primary

    A hot lunch, cooked on site by local cooks, every school day.

    30,000+ pupils (2026)

  3. About thirty secondary students, most of them girls, in front of a white minibus, holding their lunch boxes

    Secondary (Avança+)

    A bus to secondary school, a mentor, and a meal.

    297 students (2026)

See how it all works

Our team

Founded and run locally, by people who grew up in the communities we serve.

Our team is rooted in the same communities we serve. That's why we go the extra mile (or hundreds of miles, in reality) to reach the remote schools where school feeding can have the biggest impact.

See where we work
  • Talvina Ualane crouches, smiling, behind six small children holding plastic plates on the step of a gray-and-blue school building
    Talvina Ualane · Co-Founder & Chókwè District School Feeding Program Manager.
  • Roberto Mutisse standing beside a schoolboy under a tree in a sandy schoolyard
    Roberto Mutisse · Co-Founder & Executive Director.

Every school meal is a community effort.

  • Two cooks in gingham caps work long paddles through pots of xima in a tin-walled school kitchen

    Cooks

    Local women, trained by MSLI, cook at every school. Kitchens start at 6am to serve lunch by noon.

  • About sixty women, many with babies and toddlers, sit on the sand and on plastic chairs in the shade of a large tree at a community meeting

    Parents and teachers

    Families bring water and firewood to the kitchen. Teachers serve at lunch. Parents plant the school gardens.

  • A smiling young man and an older woman in a headscarf hold up bunches of freshly pulled carrots in a green field

    Farmers

    We partner with local farmer cooperatives to grow nutritious ingredients for the school meals.

  • A health worker in a white shirt hands out tablets to a line of young children in a schoolyard

    District health services

    District health teams deworm pupils and vaccinate girls against HPV. We provide transportation to reach the schools.

How the program works

News from the schools.

We create a newsletter and deliver it to you a few times a year: what happened at the schools, the preschools and the farms, with the numbers. Sign up below.

SubscribeRead past issues
Two smiling girls in a schoolyard hold up their lunches of rice and stew, one in a pink tub, one on a plate
Latest issue: October 2026, going where the children are (PDF).
A beaming girl in a turquoise dress holds a plate of xima and chicken beside a brick school wall

Help a child reach their full potential.

US$50 provides school lunches for a child for an entire school year (2026). Every donation is used to support our childhood community programs in Mozambique.

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