A school feeding organization in Kenya, Food4Education, left King Letsie III of the Kingdom of Lesotho and the President of the African Development Bank Group, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, so impressed that they made impassioned appeals to governments and corporate leaders to do more to end classroom hunger.
King Letsie III and Adesina visited Ruiru Primary School, on the outskirts of the capital Nairobi, to witness how an idea that began in 2012 from a temporary structure to feed only 25 students, is now delivering nutritious meals to 500,000 children daily. To date, Food4Education has delivered more than 100 million meals to schools across 10 counties in Kenya.
Currently, only 30 percent of children in Sub-Saharan Africa benefit from school feeding programs, highlighting the urgent need for action and investment.
Food4Education: a blueprint in school feeding
Food4Education is the brainchild of Wawira Njiru, who at the age of 21, founded the non-profit to make a difference in her community.
After touring the school’s cooking facilities, the King and the Bank Group President donned aprons and head covers in time to serve students their lunch portions of freshly prepared rice, beans and fruit. King Letsie III and Adesina also enjoyed the meal.
King Letsie III and Adesina heard how the program is vital to increasing school attendance, improving educational outcomes, creating jobs and stimulating local economies.
Njiru said at Ruiru Primary School alone, enrolment had more than doubled from 600 to 1,500, and attendance rates had equally improved because “students are actually excited to come to school and look forward to lunchtime.”
In schools served by Food4Education across Kiambu county, school enrolment has increased by 36.5 percent and 22.3 percent in the capital Nairobi.
“Ending school age hunger is not a distant dream; it is within our reach,” His Majesty King Letsie said. “Now is the time for bold action and greater investment. We must move with urgency and unwavering commitment to turn our vision into reality.”
Saying no parent should have to endure the pain of helplessly watching their child crying for lack of food, Bank Group President Adesina was emphatic about the responsibility of African governments and corporate leaders to invest more in nutrition and education.
“The issue about malnutrition and stunting is not a social issue. It is a leadership issue; it is an accountability issue. How do we justify a situation where we have 65 percent of the uncultivated land left to feed the world here in Africa, and yet we have kids that go to bed hungry?” posed Adesina who was accompanied by his wife, Mrs. Grace Yemisi Adesina.
Next stop for the King and Adesina was Food4Education’s warehouse and laboratory, where food samples undergo quality testing. They observed first-hand the automated sorting and climate-smart storage of beans, rice and other essential cereals.
Food is strictly inspected.
Staff package sorted grains and cereals.
Our journey has been transformational – there was no roadmap, no well-trodden path; we learned by doing,” Njiru said: “Through a hands-on approach, we have built not just a last-mile solution, but a blueprint that drives systemic change by improving education and nutrition while creating jobs and opportunities within the communities we serve.”
The tour concluded at the Giga Kitchen, Africa’s largest green kitchen, where 60,000 fresh, nourishing meals are prepared daily using fire from briquettes made of recyclable materials and clean steam cooking technology.
Food4Education’s ambition is to feed 1 million children daily in Kenya by 2027 and expand its impact to 2 million more in two additional African countries by 2030.
Food4Education operates with efficiency at scale using innovative technology such as Tap2Eat wristbands which allow parents to pay digitally whilst also providing accurate operational data that prevents food waste and keeps costs affordable for parents. Every aspect has been carefully designed to be a solution that can be replicated and scaled across the continent.
“Tackling child malnutrition is a challenge we can address through innovation,” Njiru said. “Hunger is costing Africa and the world far more than we realize. Hunger strips our children of their dignity, swallowing their potential while it drains up to 16.5% of Africa’s annual GDP.”
As the African Union’s Champion for Nutrition and the Bank’s African Leaders for Nutrition Champion, King Letsie III and Adesina reaffirmed their commitment to galvanizing political will and mobilizing investments for Africa’s school feeding economy.
“As we come here, united in purpose, let us recognize that sustainable school feeding programs are not just an intervention — they are a commitment to human capital development, economic resilience, and food security,” King Letsie said during a post-tour press briefing.
Bank Group President Adesina stressed, “It’s time to see investment in nutrition not as an expenditure item, but as a vital investment in grey matter infrastructure – the development of human capital, particularly through nutrition and education, to drive our economies well into the future.”
Others accompanying Adesina were the Bank Group’s Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development Dr. Beth Dunford, the Director General for the East Africa region Kennedy Mbekeani and the Senior Advisor to the President for Communication and Stakeholder Engagement Dr. Victor Oladokun.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
