President William Ruto with Suzanne Silantoi, county executive, Nairobi (left), and Wawira Njiru, founder of Food4Education at the launch of the Nairobi County school feeding program. (Photo: Courtesy of Food4Education)
Metropolis Desk-
This August, Nairobi will launch the largest school food program in Africa as part of a campaign to “eradicate the shame of hunger in [Kenya]”.
Ten additional kitchens that are now being built will serve 400,000 lunches every day to students in 225 primary schools and Early Childhood Development centers in the Kenyan capital. The program will begin on August 28, the first day of the fall semester, and there will be 3,500 people working in the kitchens.
Nairobi County and Food4Education, a Kenyan non-profit organization that already provides lunches to 150,000 primary school students in the city, have joined forces to launch the $8.6 million (£6.7 million) project.
To expand the current national feeding program from serving 1.6 million children to 4 million, Ruto said the government has allotted 5 billion Kenyan shillings ($36 million), but he pledged to boost the amount if more counties committed financing. To feed 8 million students in his schools, he added, “We are going to match counties which have a plan on school feeding initiative, shilling for a shilling.
The majority of pupils in the city skip lunch, which hinders their ability to learn, according to Suzanne Silantoi, the county governor of Nairobi city county, who claimed this during meetings with teachers and parents during the election campaign last year. In the country, child hunger is a substantial barrier to enrollment in and attendance in schools.
“We understand how important a connection there is between good nutrition and academic performance, which is why the county has institutionalized the school feeding program. In public schools, we anticipate better attendance and performance,” added Silantoi.
Food4Education was started in 2012 by the Kenyan nutritionist Wawira Njiru from a makeshift kitchen that employed one cook and produced lunch for 25 children in Ruiru primary school.
“The goal at the beginning was to feed 100 children,” said Njiru. “As the numbers grew over the years, I became more ambitious [to feed] 1 million children. But I didn’t know how it would happen.”
Njiru said she was inspired to provide cheap and nutritious lunches to schoolchildren from poor rural households and informal settlements after witnessing poverty and inequality among her classmates when she was growing up in Ruiru town on the outskirts of Nairobi.
“I went to Australia for my undergraduate degree and while there I fundraised, and raised $250. I used that to construct the first kitchen and purchase the food that kicked off the program,” said Njiru.
“With this new partnership [with the city government], the number of children served a day will increase to 400,000. Furthermore, as additional partnerships are formed, we anticipate reaching 500,000 children, possibly by the end of next year. These developments bring us significantly closer to achieving the one million children a day goal,” she said.
As well as improving children’s health it has improved enrolment rates. “We have witnessed significant growth of 30%-40% in enrolment in schools we partner with,” said Njiru.
The kitchens will be fueled by renewable energy using eco-briquettes and steam gas technology. The development of Food4Education has also been significantly aided by technology: each child receives a wristband called Tap2Eat that is connected to a virtual wallet that parents use to pre-pay 15 shillings ($0.11) for each meal.
The relationship with parents is crucial, according to Njiru, because when they pitch in, they feel like they are helping to feed their kids. The technology aids parents in monitoring their kids and determining whether their kids are skipping school.
The county government will subsidize the price of each meal using technology as well. Parents must contribute five shillings, and the government will add 25 shillings for each meal, according to Silantoi.
The county government would set up 1.2 billion shillings ($8.6 million) annually for the school food program, according to Silantoi. “A youngster will typically spend around 955 shillings per year. Anyone who wants to sponsor a child will pay that amount each year.
Additionally, the collaboration between Food4Education and Nairobi’s county government would give farmers a market and job prospects.
“In this particular project, we will involve the communities and employ about 2,000 people, as well as provide a market for the food produced in the communities, which will improve their economic outcomes,” stated Silantoi.
Source- The Guardian
