(SOUTHERN AFRICA) What do you think of when you think about food choices? In Canada and the US, we have been programmed to think about “food choices” as a conscious decision to eat healthier food.

In Canada and the US, we have been programmed to think about “food choices” as a conscious decision to eat healthier food. More veggies and less meat. More fruit and less sugar. More fiber and less processed food. We carefully read the ingredients of every item we put into our shopping carts as we wander through our well stocked supermarkets. North America is currently battling an epidemic of obesity caused mostly by people making poor food (and lifestyle) choices. Public health and education agencies are working hard to get people to make better choices by improving their knowledge or influencing their decisions through advertising messages or policy changes.

In the US close to 36% of all adults are obese (CDC 2012). In Malawi close to 50% of all children are stunted (DHS 2011). Stunting is caused by chronic undernourishment combined with recurring childhood sicknesses and low birth weight.

Here in Malawi food and choice are often not put together. The staple food here is called nshima. It is a sticky paste made from boiling white maize flour. This flour, although not the traditional food of Malawians, has become so popular that people often say, “If I have not eaten Nshima, I have not eaten.” This preference for a single source of food energy has a downside. Maize is a crop which is not particularly suited to the semi-arid climate of Malawi, and once the bran is removed from Maize flour it is really not very nutritious. 

A large part of World Renew’s work in southern Africa is helping communities think about and develop deliberate food choices of their own. This is a process with three distinct activities:

  • First, we work with farmers to influence what they grow and how much they harvest. Improved agricultural practices that increase water retention and soil fertility are key interventions that World Renew introduces to promote long-lasting change.
     
  • Second, World Renew works with farmers to plan what parts of their harvests to sell and when to sell them. When farmers sell their harvest at the same time as all of the neighboring farms, they get the lowest price of the year for their crop, which leads to poverty in farm households.
     
  • Last, World Renew is increasingly aware of the need to “get into the kitchen” with the grandmothers, mothers, and caregivers who do the cooking for their families to help them better understand how to make good decisions about what they put on people’s plates. This final step is proving to be one of the most critical in improving household food choices: people need instruction not only on what to cook, but how to cook it. By simply adding a more protein rich flour, such as soy flour, to the staple maize flour, the health of children can be drastically improved. Add to that peanut paste, leafy green vegetables, and some beans, and a household can have a balanced diet with all local foods.

​In a recent visit to one of World Renew’s program areas close to Lilongwe, I was introduced to a group of women who were excited about making five different, nutritious meals to demonstrate to other mothers in the community what can actually be done with local ingredients. Their creative use of soya flour, peanut sauce, eggs, beans, and plaintains resulted in a smorgasbord of flavors and nutrition. And, the women eagerly told me, the families involved in this program do not have one case of a malnourishment right now: the healthy, energetic kids running around on the outskirts of our cooking activities were living proof of good food choices. 

World Renew in Southern Africa is committed to tying together the three components of “food choices” in all of our programs — enough food, enough money, and improved care. Looking at the smiling kids in that village last week, I am convinced that it has made a difference in many communities… a difference that will pay off in the future.
 

Peter Timmerman

Team Leader & Country Consultant
World Renew Southern Africa, Malawi