Meals for Everyone: a daily breakfast for every child at Kaley

Under the name Meals for Everyone, all 19 children on this plantation receive a nutritious meal every morning. Tea Kulture has supported the project since the end of 2025 through a fixed monthly contribution.

Kaley Tea Estate

Kaley Tea Estate is located in Kotapola, nestled between the Sinharaja rainforest and the ocean. The estate's official name is Enasaldola, but the tea is known under the brand name Kaley, a shortened form of the Sinhala word kalé: forest.

That is not a coincidental name. The estate borders Sinharaja, the last large tract of lowland rainforest in Sri Lanka and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Across around 48 hectares, the tea plants are grown organically and regeneratively, while 23 hectares of rainforest are protected. Between the tea bushes, cinnamon, pepper, herbs, and fruit grow side by side. It is a deliberate choice for an agroforestry system.

Since 2015, the estate has been in the hands of Udena Wickremesooriya, who gradually converted the plantation to fully organic cultivation. The last pesticides were removed in 2019, and in February 2022 Kaley received USDA Organic certification. Since 2020, tea has been produced by hand on the estate itself in a small artisan factory. The picking and rolling is carried out by a permanent group of female workers.

Kaley is a co-founder of the Ceylon Artisanal Tea Collective, a group of small producers who openly share knowledge, recipes, and techniques with one another.

The social dimension plays a significant role throughout this story. Education, healthcare, and housing for the people on the estate are at least as important as the tea itself.

Read more about Kaley Tea Estate.

A community with a long history

Most of the families living on the Kaley estate are Malaiyaha Tamils, also known as Hill Country Tamils or Indian Tamils. Their ancestors came to Sri Lanka from southern India almost two centuries ago. British colonial authorities brought them to this region to work on the tea, coffee, and rubber plantations.

Today, generations later, the Malaiyaha Tamils still form a distinct community within Sri Lanka. They have their own language, their own culture, and their own history. Despite their significant contribution to the Sri Lankan economy, however, they remain a marginalised group. Access to education, healthcare, nutrition, and equal opportunities remains limited for them. Many families on the plantations struggle with poverty, unemployment, and a sense of exclusion.

What Meals for Everyone aims to address

Through many conversations with workers at Kaley Tea Estate, one problem came up repeatedly: malnutrition. Not the extreme hunger seen on television, but a persistent lack of sufficient and nutritious food.

Many adults eat one, at most two meals a day, often with a nutritional value that is far too low. Alcohol misuse is also a significant factor in many households: money goes primarily towards drink, not food or health.

Some children are raised by their grandmother because their parents have died or are working abroad. In families with several children in particular, little money is left over for food and education. Quick and cheap meals are the norm. The consequences are predictable: less energy, less concentration, fewer chances of doing well at school.

It is precisely in situations like these that a daily breakfast can make the difference.

The project in practice

Since the start of 2026, Kaley has provided a nutritious breakfast every morning for the children on the plantation. One mother takes on the preparation every day. She keeps the kitchen clean and lets people know when ingredients are no longer in stock. At the weekend, meals are cooked communally, with a Saturday breakfast for the whole community. Once a month, parents and children share a meal.

SpaceEka plays a central role in sustaining this entire initiative. Its members, Jayampathi Guruge and Shalini Wanninayake, are living full-time within the Kaley community, working alongside residents to improve living conditions while supporting education, art, environmental restoration, food security, and long-term community development.

The approach goes beyond distributing food. It is a community project with several layers. A shared kitchen means the children can prepare food and tea for themselves when there is nothing at home. Vegetables, herbs, and fruit come from the estate itself. Alongside this, systematic vegetable cultivation has begun to support long-term self-sufficiency. As part of this, families are encouraged to grow vegetables around their own homes. Part of the harvest goes towards the children's meals, and the rest is shared among the families.

Educational sessions on nutrition, health, and the social and cultural value of food have been set up around the cooking activities.

In the first quarter of 2026, the programme reached:

• 19 children between 5 and 18 years old receiving breakfast, tea, and snacks every day
• 40 adults receiving breakfast on Saturdays and tea during the week
• 10 voluntary carers sharing knowledge and support
• 3 elderly or ill residents regularly receiving meals

Children taking part

The children are now actively involved in growing vegetables and fruit. They choose which crops they want to grow and are given their own plot of land. Along the way, they learn about the indigenous crops and medicinal plants in their surroundings. Children who show leadership are given responsibilities that match what they can handle.

In addition, the first steps are being taken in food preservation, including making jam. This teaches the children to process fruit when there is a surplus.

Results so far

Food security

Children can go to the communal kitchen when there is no food available at home. The fear of going hungry has decreased significantly.

Health

Illnesses caused by nutritional deficiencies are no longer being seen among the children.

Eating together

The children eat together in an organised and respectful way. They say what they like to eat, and the meals are adapted accordingly. The kitchen is the place where birthdays are celebrated. The communal weekend meals bring the whole community together, strengthening bonds and breaking the isolation of some families.

Responsibility

The children themselves provide the biggest surprise. They are developing enthusiasm for preparing food, and older residents notice how they take on responsibility. Together with their parents, they look after the kitchen. They share the food that is available and make sure nothing goes to waste. Eating now happens with dignity, not out of necessity. Around the meals, moral values, empathy, and a sense of care for one another are growing.

More than a kitchen

Because the children know there is food, they can come together more freely for education, sport, dance, drama, and other creative activities. Celebrations and gatherings are becoming a regular part of life on the estate, and everyone brings food according to their means. When groups from abroad visit, children and adults eat together at the same table, regardless of status or background.

The challenges

A project like this also brings challenges. Not all parents participate actively or are willing to share responsibility.

Maintaining the vegetable gardens, managing the harvest, and avoiding waste require constant attention. Parents have their own work and families, and the Kaley team has other duties as well. Finding time for cultivation and community work remains a challenge. The aim is also to involve more families and to encourage healthier eating habits.

Setting up a food programme is about more than buying ingredients and preparing meals. It takes time, trust, communication, and new habits.

Plans for the future

The goal is to make the community less dependent on external support. In time, it should be able to sustain the project independently.

In concrete terms, that means:

• growing more short- and long-term crops for own consumption and sale
• expanding fruit and vegetable production
• further developing food preservation, such as jam production
• finding local sales markets
• connecting the kitchen, the gardens, collective cultivation, and the children's education more closely
• involving more parents and raising awareness of healthy nutrition
  

Over time, part of the running costs is to be funded by increased income from the plantation itself and by creative projects run by the children, with the proceeds flowing back into the community.

Tea Kulture's role

Tea Kulture has been working with Kaley Natural Farms for some time. Their tea has been part of our collection for years, and the relationship with Udena Wickremesooriya, founder of Kaley, has grown out of years of contact and shared values around quality and provenance.

Discover the collection.

Since the start of Meals for Everyone, Tea Kulture has supported the project with a fixed monthly contribution. Anyone who buys tea from Sri Lanka through us contributes indirectly to this remarkable plantation.

For Tea Kulture, this is not a marketing story. It is how we believe a specialty tea business should operate: we pay attention not only to flavour, provenance, and quality, but also to the people behind the tea.

How you can help

The project runs on a limited budget. Every euro counts, and even a small contribution makes a difference.

Three ways to contribute:

• Choose tea from Sri Lanka. Every purchase of Kaley tea in our webshop directly supports the plantation and its community.
• Would you like to make a contribution to the project? Get in touch via the contact page.
• Share this story. The reach of initiatives like this grows through visibility. Pass it on, share it, tell friends or family. The more people hear about it, the greater the impact can be.

In closing

The body survives only on food, wrote the initiators of Meals for Everyone. But this project is about more than food alone. It is about equality, education, and shared care. By nourishing bodies, they are nourishing responsibility, compassion, and a future generation capable of building a healthier, more self-sufficient community.

For Tea Kulture, this is the kind of partnership that gives meaning to our work. Good tea begins with the plant, but its real value lies in the people.