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Wawira Njiru’s hot lunches keep thousands of pupils in school

The 33-year-old Australian trained nutritionist is the executive director of the lobby.

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by The Star

News08 February 2024 - 13:23
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In Summary


  • There are about 250,000 school-going children in public primary and ECD centres in the city.
  • The handing over of these kitchens led to an increase in the number of children getting a hot meal this term to cover over 170,000 learners in 124 schools.
Food 4 Education executive director Wawira Njiru speaks to the Star during the interview at county kitchen in Muthangari Primary school in Nairobi

A school feeding programme in Nairobi has become the subject of political controversy, but Wawira Njiru is focused on one thing – getting hot meals to over 170,000 school children for lunch daily.

Food for Education, the project through which she is delivering the meals, has grown exponentially in the last decade.

The initiative did not start big. It grew gradually like the proverbial mustard seed, getting more partners and opportunities to ensure children do not learn on an empty stomach.

Growing up in Ruiru on the outskirts of Nairobi, Njiru says she always wanted to help hungry children who struggle to get enough food while going to school.

“Most of the kids going to school can’t afford lunch. Those who carry packed food don’t enjoy it because it is cold or no longer fresh and parents are struggling to give daily cash to them to buy hot lunch,” she told the Star in an interview.

Food for Education started in 2012 in Ruiru, giving lunch to 25 children with the support of a donor. The 33-year-old University of South Australia-trained nutritionist is the executive director of the organisation.

In 2021, the initiative partnered with the Dagoretti South Constituency Development Fund. The area MP, John Kiarie, popularly known as KJ, partnered with Food for Education to establish a feeding programme for the children in Dagoretti South, reaching over 12,000 children.

Under the programme, the meals were subsidised by a donor and the CDF. Parents paid Sh15 daily.

Last year, Njiru won a tender floated by Nairobi City county under Governor Johnson Sakaja to prepare and distribute the meals to the schoolchildren, along the same model as the one rolled out by KJ.

Nairobi’s programme is called Dishi na County. Sakaja had pledged to address urban poverty on the campaign trail and he was fulfilling it. Studies suggest one in four children go hungry and skip school due to lack of food.

The packed lunch is mainly rice with a different accompanying stew every other day.

"We give them vegetables, carrots, among other stews that ensure they get a balanced diet which, as per the tough economic situation, is not easy to come by in many homes," Njiru explained.

The programme distributes subsidised, nutritionally balanced, hot meals to children in public primary schools and public ECD centres in Nairobi county.

There are about 250,000 children in public schools in the city, meaning that Food for Education has yet to cover all the pupils in the capital.

Children pay Sh5 for the meal and the county has declared it “the most affordable [lunch meal] in Kenya.” The cost of the meal per child is Sh40. The county pays Sh25 and a donor pays Sh10 for every child.

Njiru told the Star that the partnership with the county is renewable annually.

She said the Dishi na County school feeding programme is being implemented through an innovative staged approach to scale up lunch meals distributed, logistics and technology to ensure the county delivers the highest quality of food and service.

Phase one was launched in August last year with over 70,000 children getting meals in 44 schools. At least 432 staff members were employed in the kitchens.

Phase two started with the new school year on Monday, January 8, 2024.

The 10 central kitchens constructed by the county were handed over and operationalised. Children are still registering, especially those late to report to school.

Njiru said that as of the first week of February, a million meals had been served across the 106 schools.

The 10 kitchens are distributed across the 17 subcounties of the city and serve a cluster of schools.

To meet the strict timelines, the kitchens operate round the clock, with workers doing shifts.

In Starehe constituency, the kitchen is at Racecourse Primary School; in Makadara Subcounty, it is at Bidii Primary while in Kasarani subcounty, the facility is in Njiru Primary School.

In Roysambu subcounty, the facility is based at Roysambu Primary; Embakasi Central subcounty has one at Kayole 1 Primary; Dagoretti North subcounty has the kitchen at Muthangari Primary, while Kibra subcounty has one at Toi Primary School.

The kitchen for Westlands subcounty is at Farasi Lane Primary, for Ruaraka subcounty at Baba Dogo Primary and Embakasi South subcounty has a kitchen at Kwa Njenga Primary.

The initiative enters the third phase next term when the remaining 70,000 children will be added to the programme so that all public primary schools in the city get hot lunch meals.

“Dishi na County is being rolled out in a hub-and-spokes model, with the central kitchen producing 10,000 meals which are distributed in surrounding schools. Additional meals are from the Giga Kitchen,” Njiru explained.

Before the programme was launched last August, Sakaja met all head teachers of the primary schools to raise awareness and mobilise support for the initiative.

Each of the head teachers was informed of their place in the phases and urged to sustain their existing feeding programmes. They would then receive communication from the county on the commencement of Dishi na County in their school.

The third phase of the programme is expected to roll out in May after additional kitchens are built and handed over to Food 4 Education.

Njiru’s school lunch initiative is also being rolled out in Murang’a and Mombasa where it has partnered with the county governments. It is also in Kisumu with support from some donors.

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