It started in 2002 when a number of international aid groups began sending large amounts of food aid to the Blessings Complex and the Malawi Project for distribution to the stricken nation. The worst famine in 50 years had washed across the land and these aid organizations were looking for groups inside the nation who already had established systems for distribution of the food aid. Two of those organizations were Feed The Children International based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and Nourish The Children based in Provo, Utah. These organizations became aware of the Malawi Project through the introduction by the Universal Aide Organization in Vancouver, Canada. Aid shipments began to flow through these organizations and Universal Aide and a close working relationship soon developed.

In mid-2003 Sid Henderson, the President of Nourish The Children, and his wife Joyce, made a fact-finding trip to Malawi in order to meet with Napoleon Dzombe of Blessings and Richard and Suzi Stephens of the Malawi Project. The work Sid saw being effectively and methodically carried out convinced him these organization and this nation was worth a larger investment. Subsequent meetings in Indianapolis, Indiana, Provo, Utah, and Nashville, Tennessee led to the recognition that Malawi offered unique opportunities by the young Nourish organization and the processing of the food from within the country rather than to process and ship from the United States added up to a plus for everyone involved. Ground was broken for the construction of the Madalitso Vita Meal Food Plant at the northern edge of the Blessings property in February 2004. The project was deemed “the largest facility of its kind ever built outside of a major city in the history of Malawi.” It brought together a number of organizations from the U.S. These included NuSkin Enterprises, the Force For Good Foundation, and the Lee Iacocca Foundation from Provo, Feed The Children International of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, as well as Healing Hands International of Nashville, Tennessee, the Malawi Project Inc of Indianapolis, Indiana and the Blessings Hospital Complex in Lumbadzi, Malawi. It was the first major project funded outside of the resources of Napoleon Dzombe and the Malawi Project.

Groundbreaking occurred in February 2004 and two large buildings quickly rose above the red dusty clay surface near the granite hillside overlooking the Dowa Valley and the quiet trading center at Lumbadzi. Under the leadership of Lyton Dzombe, Napoleon’s brother and David Goolsby, the Agricultural Director for Healing Hands International the buildings reached a magnitude of quality and cleanliness that brought accolades from all who saw them. Food scientists, led by Win Duersch, traveled to Malawi from the Pharmanex division of NuSkin Enterprises to formulate a food mix that would be palpable to the Malawi diet. An appearance at the NuSkin convention in Utah by Dzombe and the Project team, as well as an award-winning movie produced about the life of Napoleon Dzombe helped to convince NuSkin distributors from around the world to help finance the venture.

On November 3, 2004, just 10 months after the ground breaking the plant began producting Vita-Meals!

Thousands attended the event and for the first time maize and soy grown by farmers in the immediate area was being used to produce food for the needy of Malawi. A vitamin and mineral component blending into the mix made this porridge meal the most nutritional meal of the day for most Malawians.

Production has continued to increase at the Madalitso plant (The name “Madalitso” means “Blessings” in Chichewa.) with 2006 registering a record 19,000,000 meals processed and distributed throughout Malawi.