Our Story
Kwithu Kitchen was born from a simple but powerful idea: when women come together, communities can thrive.
Our story begins in Mzuzu, Malawi, with 20 determined women who refused to stand by while children in their community went hungry. In 2004, they formed the Kwithu Women’s Group, driven by compassion, resilience, and a shared belief that lasting change starts from within the community itself.
In the early days, these women preserved tomatoes by hand — not for profit, but to feed vulnerable children through their community feeding programme. What started as an act of care soon revealed a bigger possibility. They saw that the same work feeding children could also create income, dignity, and independence for women and local farmers.
With encouragement and support from Maloto, a US-based non-profit founded by Malawians in the diaspora, the women dared to dream bigger. In 2013, that dream became reality with the establishment of Kwithu Kitchen — northern Malawi’s first women-owned food processing cooperative.
Kwithu Kitchen began by processing tomatoes at a larger scale, transforming locally grown produce into high-quality products for Malawian homes. Each jar represented more than food — it represented opportunity, self-reliance, and hope.
In April 2020, Kwithu Kitchen took another bold step by expanding into Malawian honey. The response was extraordinary. Almost overnight, Kwithu Kitchen became the largest honey supplier in Malawi, proving that women-led enterprises rooted in community can compete — and lead — at a national level.
Today, our products are proudly found on shelves across the country, including Shoprite, Sana, and Chipiku Plus, served in Sunbird Hotels, and enjoyed in restaurants, institutions, and homes throughout Malawi.
Although Kwithu Kitchen operates as a commercial business, profit has never been our only measure of success. Our roots remain firmly planted in service.
A portion of every sale goes directly back to the Kwithu Women’s Group, supporting life-changing programmes such as:
Education and scholarship funding
Women and youth empowerment initiatives
HIV/AIDS support
Community outreach
A long-standing feeding programme
When you choose Kwithu Kitchen, you are not just buying food — you are investing in futures.
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meet our founder
To understand Kwithu Kitchen’s mission and goals, let share my vision for my beloved Malawi. Malawians possess the talent, ability and desire to make this a truly great country. I want Kwithu Kitchen to contribute to building a better Malawi.
Kwithu Kitchen, established in 2013, is the first women-owned food processing cooperative in northern Malawi. Since April 2020, we have become the country’s largest honey processor and supplier! We support more than 1,000 farmers and beekeepers (many of them women). We have a range of nutritious, high-quality and tasty tomato and honey products. Our products are found in every major supermarket chain and in most of the best hotels. With sales growing, we can see a pathway to profitability.
Kwithu Kitchen grew out of the Kwithu Women’s Group, a community-based organization (CBO) in the Luwinga Ward of Mzuzu. I founded Kwithu CBO in 2004 with 20 dynamic and inspiring women. The Kwithu CBO is a unique organization that works alongside their community’s most vulnerable groups to improve their lives with a broad range of social, economic, health and educational programs. Our goal is to donate a portion of our profits to support the Kwithu CBO’s programs.
Our sales growth provides a reliable market for many small-holder farmers and beekeepers and reliable employment for more than 30 full-time employees. We are proving that Malawians can process high-value and high-quality food products. Our continued growth and success will only increase our social and economic impact.
We welcome your support to help us realize a better tomorrow for Malawi. Help us get there!
