The Food Relief Network is a partnership amongst 26 local schools in the poorest neighborhoods in Lusaka Zambia. Together, supported by International donors, churches, and partners, like Convoy of Hope, we are feeding thousands of children daily and providing direct food aid to another 1,000 people in the most vulnerable households. Our strategy: local employment for local impact.
The History of the Food Relief Network: In 2015 we launched the 3 Esthers Farm with the mission of feeding the hungry kids of Lusaka. For 8 years our production only allowed us to assist one school.
In 2021 we launched our backyard garden initiative to both empower teen boys in the community, and assist the widow-headed households and most vulnerable families. We now manage over 120 backyard gardens.
In 2022, in partnership with Convoy of Hope, we began building the Food Relief Network - starting with ten local schools. We began by feeding 4,800 children a daily hot lunch, supplemented by farm fresh food.
Today we serve over 9,000 children at 21 Food Relief Centers in the poorest community in Lusaka. And with your help - we can reach many more. Dozens of schools are waiting to join this ministry.
Why is the food needed so urgently? Many of the children are HIV Positive and without good nutrition the children won’t be able to battle HIV/AIDS effectively. The reason is simple – they cannot take the anti-retroviral medications they need on an empty stomach, it’s too hard on their system.
This is why the farm, and farm fresh produce, is so vitally important. It will literally extend children’s lives and give them a shot at growing up healthy and well educated.
Esther Lubambe says:
"This is a miracle; I can’t just believe it, we have not received food from people in the last five years, or so. Thank you so much, you don’t know what you have done for us, in this household, I am staying with my husband who is a self security guard and he gets paid ZMK800.00 (roughly $80 USD) per month, this is not enough and does not even take us half a month because we are twelve in the house hold, I sell vegetables at the market just to make ends meet, but it has been so hard the vegetables are not selling as it used to be because this time we have prominent farmers who have started coming in the community with their vehicles and selling their vegetables direct to our buyers taking over our business, and with them they are selling at a wholesale price, which we can’t even compete with.
I had come home to sleep because the vegetables are not selling, and just heard Loveness screaming with joy, that she wanted to eat Nshima (stable food) with her vegetables immediately, as she was not going to wait for the usual time and everyone got so excited that I had no option but to wake up and start preparing the vegetables for our lunch, meaning today we are going to have two meals, this is unbelievable, and I couldn’t believe it that I had to send her sister to go and ask from school where she had gotten the vegetables, and now Esther is here to explain where Loveness got the vegetables, this is so Amazing, really God hears when we ask or cry to Him. We normally have one meal per day, and this is around 4.00pm, but today it’s two meals, I thank God so much for using you generous people by providing for us. Thank you so much may God bless you more."
We pay our farm caretakers to manage the property. They live at the farm and are responsible for the success of the crops.
We are blessed to have a farm truck, but the repair and maintenance is expensive. Fuel costs to transport the food to the Ngombe Community are also something we cover.
There are lots of ongoing costs on a farm from electricity to repair and maintenance of machines, tools, and structures.
We are working hard to fully utilize the entire ten acre parcel. That means ongoing investment in our on-going projects, such as our Banana and Mango orchard and our goat herd. But we also have seasonal crops we plant, such as garden vegetables. These seasonal crops require one-time investments in seedlings several times a year.
