Where We Work

Identifying Need

Lunchbox Fund’s long-term goal is to reach every child in Southern Africa that does not have access to school nutrition programs. We collate online applications, word of mouth referrals, and credible Southern African statistics to develop priority target areas. This data represents a range of indicators for children’s vulnerability to hunger and food insecurity.

Education focused non-profit organizations, together with in-country partners and fieldworkers, assist us in identifying where our in-school feeding will have the most impact.

This approach, together with on-the-ground site evaluation of each school, ensures the most effective and efficient utilization of resources.

Where We Work

Tremendous social and economic inequalities in Southern Africa yield local-level variations in children’s hunger and vulnerability. Identifying beneficiaries always involves community mapping, funder and stakeholder liaison and program monitoring and evaluation.
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The Lunchbox Fund is a tri-national organization working in urban, per-urban and rural settings in all nine South African provinces, Mozambique’s Gaza Province and in the Maseru and Berea areas of Lesotho.

Lesotho (Pilot)

250 children

5 Early Childhood Development Programs

Mozambique

8,000 children

42 Primary/Secondary Schools and Early Childhood Development Programs

41 Food Mamas (Cooks)

South Africa

115,000 children

1,910 Primary/Secondary Schools, Early Childhood Development Programs and After-School Initiatives

104 Food Mamas (Cooks)

South Africa

115,000 children

1,910 Primary/Secondary Schools, Early Childhood Development Programs and After-School Initiatives

104 Food Mamas (Cooks)

Mozambique

8,000 children

42 Primary/Secondary Schools and Early Childhood Development Programs

41 Food Mamas (Cooks)

Lesotho (Pilot)

250 children

5 Early Childhood Development Programs

Mozambique Program

Between October 2024 and June 2025, Lunchbox Fund responded to the critical need for nutrition support at Primary schools in Gaza Province Mozambique. This effort would be our first ever program outside of South Africa.

Within days of the program starting learners were bringing their younger siblings to school with them - with the express intention of ensuring they would also be fed. This presented an opportunity to develop nine pre-schools adjacent to the Primaries - the first early childhood development centres in the communities. Almost overnight 1,000 children were added to our program and we closed out the pilot reaching 5,258 children each school day. In addition 29 women were hired from within the schools’ immediate communities to prepare meals - their first formal, income earning employment and 27 Pre-School teachers were trained and employed through Associação Iniciative Mocambicana De Lanche Escolar, our in-country partner.

Today our formalised School Nutrition program reaches 8,000 children in 32 Pre-, Primary and Secondary Schools in Gaza Province. Pre-schoolers receive porridge prepared with freshly boiled water when they arrive at school. Lessons are held until noon, when the young learners join their Primary School siblings for lunch, before heading home.

Each meal is content-balanced to include carbohydrates, fats, protein and is accompanied by a vitamin and mineral enriched VitaDrink providing a comprehensive range of micro-nutrients, directly correcting nutritional deficiencies and improving overall health outcomes.

Funding for the Mozambique program is raised separately to that intended for the South African Program.