Wairimu Nyandia
Hunger is one of the biggest challenges that nearly 90 percent of children on the African continent face.
Due to food insecurity and a persistently high cost of living, the majority of families in low-income communities struggle to provide nutritious meals for their children.
Only 13 percent of children who receive regular school meals worldwide are in Africa.
The short and long-term effects of hungry and undernourished children are high.
Here in Kenya, 1 in every 4 children under 5 is stunted and 43 percent of the country’s population, which consists of primary school-age children is at risk of being left behind because they are unable to learn and reach their full potential effectively.
Every child represents an opportunity to create a better world tomorrow and therefore we must put them first, ensuring that their bodies and minds are nourished.
Our investments will make a lifetime of difference for children and consequently advance Africa’s prosperity goals.
Over the past 12 years, Food for Education has been ‘feeding the future’ – reaching
underserved children in public primary schools across Kenya’s urban, semi-urban, and rural areas.
Founded by Kenyan Nutritionist Wawira Njiru, the organization’s solution is simple – a daily, nutritious, affordable school meal sourced from local farmers.
Since its inception, the school feeding program has served over 38 million meals across 5 counties in Kenya.
It is one of Africa’s school feeding programs creating impact for children sustainably and at scale.
Food for Education takes on an integrated school feeding approach to reach children.
Its model focuses on five core components which are: local sourcing, central cooking, smart distribution, nutrition, and smart technology.
Working with over 100,000 local smallholder farmers across Kenya, Food for Education sources fresh, nutritious ingredients to use.
In addition, it leverages economies of scale to freshly cook all meals at central kitchens designed by the organization.
The food is distributed in safe, insulated thermal containers to schools.
Children access nutritious meals via Tap2Eat, an NFC-enabled wrist watch which is also a virtual wallet that also allows their parents to contribute micro-payments for the meals.
Every meal served is hot and nutrient-dense, containing at least 4 out of the 7 minimal dietary diversity food groups and essential micronutrients such as zinc, which boosts children’s immunity and metabolism, as well as iron which is essential for young adolescent girls.
Communities that Food for Education serves are seeing the impact of the program.
There are 3000 jobs created already and for teachers, they see up to 20 percent increase in school enrolment rates.
As a result, Food for Education has strong backing from parents and the government towards creating a sustainable model.
Parents willingly contribute to the children’s meals and the organization has built 3 government partnerships toward scaling and mainstreaming school
feeding.
As the world today marks Africa Day of School feeding under the theme “Investing in Home-Grown School Feeding to transform education systems – for an inclusive, and prosperous future of the African Continent” Food for Education is renewing its commitment to eradicating hunger for every African child.
Aiming to serve 1 million children per day by 2027, the organization is creating a blueprint school feeding model of excellence for scale and replication across Africa.
A model that has proven profound health, education, and economic benefits for Africa’s fast-growing economies.
It is Africa’s true homegrown pathway to achieving AU’s Agenda 2063, which looks at school feeding as an opportunity to promote education and prevent the high rates of school dropouts due to hunger.
The author serves as the Chief Operations Officer at Food for Education.