Although most of us consider education as a fundamental right, many children still face als sorts of hurdles here in Kenya, including hunger, as they try to get quality learning opportunities. However, a feeding program by a school in Limuru Constituency intends to increase the number of children attending school through the program. This is after it was announced by MP John Kiragu that there would be more schools that would benefit from Food4Education at the launch of Phase 2, which took place at Kamandura Primary School’s ‘Mega Kitchen.’
Expansions of the Feeding Programme was kicked off in the first phase in March 2023 and has been well-functional across 17 public primary schools in Limuru. MP John Kiragu is now set to roll out the initiative to more than 20 primary schools. Addressing parents during the launch, Kiragu pleaded with them to remain calm as plans are being made for successful process implementation in those schools that are yet to benefit from the nursery program.
Kiragu acknowledged that the primary intention of the feeding program was to improve the enrollment as well as retention of children within the school system, aiding their concentration in the learning process. “We are out to ensure the realization of better learning outcomes and an increase in school attendance,” he said. The aim is that the program should exhibit a substantial positive impact since well-nourished children tend to perform better and maintain school attendance.
Food4Education is a non-profit organization that operates a program called Tap2Eat, whose functionality is a mobile-based cashless platform that enables public primary schoolchildren to access nutritious meals at subsidized rates using mobile money. All this comprises an innovative way of ensuring that children receive meals and incorporates modern technology to make the work easier.
The program has been made affordable for the families, in which every pupil gets a meal at the cost of Ksh 15 per day; this totals Ksh 75 in a week, Ksh 300 in a month, Ksh 900 in a term, and Ksh 2,700 in a year. What’s more, the program will subsidize by 10% for the pupils that school management identifies as coming from needy families so that they do not miss out on anything.
Food4Education does not limit its interventions within Limuru. The program is currently running in five counties which include Nairobi, Kiambu, Murang’a, Mombasa, and Kisumu. Since its inception, Food4Education has served 31 million meals and hopes to cross over 60 million meals this year with the planned expansion.