Project to feed the poor established in Nakuru

An entertainment joint in Nakuru has established a kitchenette where it serves daily free lunches to the needy and street families.

Built near Kanyon slum next to the posh Section 58 Estate, families troop to the kitchenette founded by Lions Club in mid-April this year for their daily treat.

For most of the beneficiaries of this project, the free lunch is the only meal they have for the day, it is their lifeline.

Former President of Nakuru Lions Club, Shailesh Sheth said thousands of people, especially casual workers lost their job during the COVID-19 pandemic which increased poverty levels by a great margin.

He said the Lions Club of Nakuru with the help of like-minded organisations used to buy food rations for needy families which are distributed with the help of the Kenya Red Cross Society and the Kenya Police Service.

"The club spent more than Sh5 million and distributed the food humpers to the families in the slum areas but with time, we realised that it was not sustainable," he said.

Sheth adds that besides the food supplies, the club kept receiving requests for medicine.

"It was at this point that we borrowed a small space of Lions Primary School to build the kitchenette and we ensured it completely had its own facilities complete with a gate so that the beneficiaries do not interact with the learners in any way," he said.

Sheth said the club's board also approved holding two medical camps every month in different slums where free medicine was dispensed.

"The club also undertook to hold free eye camps with the greatest beneficiaries being elders detected to have been suffering from cataracts because they get free operations to remove the growths," said Sheth.

He said the kitchenette was launched by serving an average of 300 members daily, which has currently increased to about over 400 per day.

"The club is funding the meal program and occasionally, well-wishers sponsors for one day meal at a cost of Sh5000 per day," said Sheth.

He appealed to well-wishers and potential donors to help run the program by sponsoring a one-day meal.

He added that the Lions Club of Nakuru intends to run the project for a lifetime so that no one sleeps hungry or suffers from any medical issues because the medical camps will continue every month.

Mary Wamuhu said the project saved her family from starvation at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The woman who is nursing a one-year-old child said she land her husband lost their jobs at a flower farm in Kabazi and resorted to live in the slums