Documenting Feed the Children in Malawi

It’s a new blog post with photos from Malawi. One of the goals was to document the Nourish the Children efforts in Malawi. Nourish the Children is a for profit effort to feed hungry children around the world. To date, Nu Skin and it’s distributors have delivered more than 600 million meals to hungry children.

Taking a tour of the Nourish the Children plant

I was there to document the factory in Malawi that puts together the VitaMeal porridge. We were able to tour the facility, which sources the grains and ingredients from local farmers. The factory employees local Malawians who process the food, bag the food, and deliver the bags.

Napolean

One bag will provide about 30 meals to a child. It is designed to provide a meal a day for a month. I believe there are two versions of the VitaMeal. This one is made with corn and soybean and it is fortified with vitamins. I tried it after the tour and with some sugar, it was pretty good.

Food ready to be turned into Nourish the Children meals

We also had several photo opportunities to photograph distributors and employees handing out bags of VitaMeal to local children. The distributors went everywhere with their cameras to document how the whole system works to encourage other people to buy a bag of VitaMeal each month, and the bag is automatically donated to children in need.

A distributor tries out the porridge.

Distributors in front of the factory in Malawi

We had a chance to see one village in action. The mothers prepared the VitaMeal which was then delivered to the kids.

Local villagers prepare the Nourish the Children porridge

This little girl was adorable. I “caught” her washing the flatware and when she spied me, she immediately dropped the flatware and ran off. I guess I look a bit scary? Many kids aren’t used to a white person walking through the village, especially with a camera.

A little villager is caught washing the silverware

This photo opportunity yielded some favorite photographs like this big brother walking his little brother with a bowl of VitaMeal.

Helping his brother

This was another favorite photograph of siblings hanging out—the sister giving her brother a hug.

Enjoying a bowl of porridge

Here are a number of photos from one of the VitaMeal distributions. Each child has a ticket and redeems it for their own bag of food. It helps keep things organized.

Distributing bags of VitaMeal

A bag of VitaMeal on the head

I don’t speak the language but a little bit of miming helps to get this photograph posed.

A group of Malawian children with bags of VitaMeal on their heads

A tender moment

I try to capture the authentic smiles of the kids as they receive their bag of VitaMeal.

Bringing smiles to children around the world

And then we have some candid moments of a distributor teaching kids how to play the recorder. In some villages, they brought a bunch of recorders to teach kids how to play them.

Teaching the kids to play the recorder

We were heading back to the hotel when we spotted this moment of people walking with their bags of VitaMeal. Always have the camera ready!

Malawian kids walk home with their new bags of VitaMeal