Blantyre, February 22, 2023 – Standard Bank through its Limbe Branch has donated a sum of MK1 million to the global school feeding charity, Mary’s Meals aimed at feeding 45 primary school children for a full academic year.
Speaking on Wednesday during the handover ceremony Standard Bank’s Head of Innovation, Ecosystems and Partnerships, Alipo Nyondo said the donation is aimed at ensuring that children are supported in their pursuit for education.
“Standard Bank appreciates the efforts by government and Mary’s meals to provide for the needs of the children through the school feeding programme. Therefore, through our Branch Corporate Social Investment programme, Limbe Branch has donated this amount to support children in primary school,” said Nyondo
According to Nyondo, Standard Bank has made the donation to drive Malawi’s overall economic growth through education.
“As a bank working towards driving the growth of Malawi we look at education as a strategic sector to achieve our purpose. Therefore, we looked at the right partner who can help us to be part of the development of the country and Mary’s Meals emerged very strategic,” he said.
Standard Bank Limbe Branch Manager, Dyson Mmina, added that they are encouraged by the positive impact of the school feeding programme, as it has helped to reduce absenteeism and improved attendance of classes by students over the years.
“The school feeding programme has had many benefits such as ensuring children have energy and increased concentration in class, which has reduced absenteeism from school with increased enrollment, and access to nutrition for some that barely eat well at home,” said the branch manager.
While acknowledging the bank for the donation, Umberto Bosco, Mary’s Meals Head of Programmes, pleaded for more support to help feeding children in primary schools across the country.
“As Mary’s Meal we commend Standard Bank for this important donation as it will go a long way to feed almost 50 learners for the whole school year.
Our organization is feeding more than 1 million children in the country it’s a big number, therefore, we need support from the corporate world to help us feed them all,” said Bosco.
Mary’s Meals is an international organization which started operating in Malawi in 2002 when the founder came across a child who indicated lack of food as the reason why he skipped classes.
As of 2022, Mary’s Meals managed to feed over 1 million primary school children in 1,045 schools across the country.
