Natebe Cooking and Eating Shelter
We’re delighted to announce that ZJMF’s first cooking and eating shelter is now complete at Natebe Community School!
We’re delighted to announce that ZJMF’s first cooking and eating shelter is now complete at Natebe Community School!
Why it matters
Educators know that children can’t learn on empty stomachs, and that the promise of a meal is what brings many of them to school. Yet many children at Zambia’s community schools don’t have reliable access to food during the school day. The schools themselves also lack the facilities to prepare and serve meals safely. Cooking often happens without proper ventilation or storage and without protection from the weather, and there’s no dedicated space where children can eat together.
A cooking and eating shelter changes that. It gives the school a safe place to prepare food and gives students a place to sit down and share a meal. It also doubles as a community gathering place and as extra classroom space for overcrowded schools. Other nonprofits have built similar shelters at nearby schools, and they show what this simple building can do: steady nutrition support, safer cooking and more usable space for the whole school community.
It takes a village
This was a true community effort. It was made possible by you, our generous donors, along with a grant from the Magnolia Rotary Club, help from the local community, and volunteers from Jollyboys Backpackers Hostel who lent a hand. We’re proud to support the Natebe community and to work alongside the area’s talented builders and engineers and our partners at the Ministry of Education.
We’re already planning for our next cooking and eating shelter at the Nyanzabili Community School. Want to help make that reality? Join our supporters with a donation of any size at Food is an Education Issue.
