Stakeholders urged to support feeding programmes in schools

Education stakeholders and well-wishers have been urged to support children from needy families to afford lunch.

Food for Education organization community manager Vincent Muiruri said a lot of children fail in exams and at times lose concentration during afternoon lessons due to hunger.

Muiruri who is a nutritionist adds that it is important and healthy for children to have a meal at the middle of the day so as to boost their energy at school.

He said his organization started feeding in Nairobi with the assistance of Governor Johnson Sakaja where parents pay only Sh15 per day.

“We look for donors to help us buy food, pay cooks, transport and meet other needs,” he said.

“With the help of leaders, we have been able to charge affordable prices to parents. We call it tap to eat. Even as we charge Sh15 per day which translates to about Sh900 per term, some parents cannot afford and we urge well-wishers to chip in and support the needy children” he said.

Once parents pay the Sh900 fees for the tap to eat, the pupils are given special wrist bands that help the organisation to identify pupils who have paid when the food is being served, Muiruri explained.

He spoke on Saturday at Kamandura Primary School in Kiambu County where the organization started the feeding programme that will cover 67 primary schools in Limuru constituency.  

Limuru MP John Kiragu said Sh10 million was spent on the kitchen that will be used to feed the over 10,000 pupils.

He added that the food cooked will be transported using vehicles to schools without feeding programme.

"This programme is for all schools. However, we will not compel schools with feeding programmes to join, but to analyse what will be happening since some charge over Sh3,000 per child per term for feeding programme” he noted.

Kiragu added that more than 30 schools in the area do not have a feeding programme.

“Pupils from these schools either carry left-over food from home and if there was no food that was left the previous night, they opt to spend the day hungry” the legislator said.

MPs present during the launch of the programme included Mburu Kahangara (Lari), Alice Ng’ang’a (Thika), Githua Wamacukuru (Kabete), Kiambu Woman representative Ann Wamuratha and leader of the majority Kimani Ichung’wa who is also the Kikuyu legislator.

Wamacukuru applauded Kiragu for taking the bold step to start the project which has already started in Nairobi.

The Kabete MP noted that legislators from Kiambu county will benchmark at Limuru so that they can start to reach out to children from the needy families.

“We are so happy to have a tap-to-eat programme started in Kiambu by our neighbours. We shall all benchmark in Limuru so that we can start and reach out to all our pupils,” he said.

Lari MP Kahangara added that the food that the children were being fed with was balanced died, saying it will boost the health of the learners.

“When we support our children with nutritious foods, then we build their concentration on the classrooms” Kahangara said.

He added that supporting the children in schools was a collective responsibility and urged stakeholders, schools alumni and well wishers to support the programme since it was impactful to pupils and society.