Bread Brings Education, Health and Hope
By, Jessie Manzer on July 5, 2016
“Chawama is Yawama!” shout a group of children outside World Central Kitchen (WCK) in Lusaka, Zambia. Inside, bakers are preparing their daily fresh bread. Aside from their deliciously baked bread, Chawana bakery offers much more. It helps provide children with education and health. The 100 loaves of bread that WCK makes and sells each day supports teachers’ salaries and provides healthy lunches for 100 children.
The bakery’s new goal is to produce and sell 200 loaves per day, which would double its current production. This week, bakers were trained for the expected increase in productivity in order to ensure that they meet their goal. Customers will be able to buy the bread onsite and at the new Chawama Bakery store located in a brand new neighborhood funded by WCK.
This plan will make about 8,000 Kwacha which is $800 USD, each month. The school hopes to use these profits to provide healthy lunches to 200 students by next year.
World Central Kitchen is owned by well-known chef, Jose Andres. Andres has a strong passion for food and the value it has in the lives of people around the world. He used this passion to create his company to help find solutions to ending hunger, malnutrition and poverty. Since its inception in Haiti in 2010, it has done just that. WCK has focused on smart solutions to fight hunger and poverty around the world. Their focus is on empowering people to be part of a solution and bring to attention the importance of access to health, education and jobs. They understand that all these things improve people’s lives individually, as well as part of a larger community.
World Central Kitchen works in Haiti, Zambia, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and the United States. Although Zambia is the only place in Africa where they exist, they hope to reach more places in the future.