I recently visited Kawangware Primary School in Nairobi to witness the impacts of the donation-based Cup of Uji programme. As hundreds of children queued for a cup of hot porridge — many knowing it was the best meal they would receive that day — I flashed back to my own childhood, when a packet of ultra-high temperature milk christened “Maziwa ya Nyayo” enticed me back to school, day after day. I still remember its taste in my mouth.
Many of my former classmates and professional peers also testify to the impact of that nutritious snack. It kept us in school and our minds alert and hungry to learn.
Kenya’s children today are also hungry to learn. Yet, more and more children are too hungry to concentrate on their studies as food inflation bites into household budgets and drought kills cattle and crops.
That’s why I, and so many others, welcomed the Kenyan Parliament’s resolution directing the Ministry of Education to immediately develop a school feeding policy that covers all students in basic education. This is a positive development for Kenyan school children and the health of the nation.
It also offers an enormous opportunity to not only improve children’s health and learning, but also boost local agriculture, generate jobs and lessen Kenya’s dependence on food imports.
From the most local level to the country as a whole, a well-formulated universal school feeding programme that procures nutritious foods can lay the basis for fundamental changes in the food system: making it healthier, more regenerative and more equitable.
The social and economic value of universal school feeding is well established. Evidence shows that children receiving free lunch at school do better academically and are more likely to stay in school, advance to higher levels of education, and do better economically in life. Considered in this holistic light, every $1 invested in school meals can produce another $9 in economic returns .
Less appreciated is the crucial importance and outsized benefits of school meals that provide locally sourced, highly nutritious foods, such as fortified whole grains or iron- and zinc-enriched beans.
Today, just 1.6 million Kenyan children receive free school meals. Meanwhile 8.4 million children go without. Furthermore, maize makes up 70 percent of today’s school meals. This reflects the national diet itself: low in essential nutrients and high in carbohydrates.
It is a recipe for malnutrition and worsening health. Indeed, Kenya’s population suffers from a double burden of malnutrition: obesity with associated diet-related diseases such as diabetes, and undernutrition manifested by stunting and wasting. Today a shocking one-in-four children in Kenya are stunted due to undernutrition. This means that one-in-four children may not pass their exams because of diet-related developmental factors.
Kenya’s children deserve better, and a universal school feeding program that procures fortified and blended whole grains and diverse, nutritious foods would start them out right.
Switching to locally grown grains — not only maize and wheat but also sorghum and millet — would reduce import costs and support local farmers. In this way, Kenya’s promised universal school feeding programme could create a huge institutional market for farmers, with ripple effects including income generation and job creation.
Diversifying diets and switching to whole from refined grains provides more—and more nutritious—school meals at no additional cost. A simple switch to whole grain produces 20 to 40 percent more food, as it preserves the most nutritious part of the grain that is discarded when refined. As such, it also reduces the need for fertilizer, water, and crop land to produce the same amount of usable grain.
As the new Kenyan government makes good on its commitment to universal school feeding, it can do so in a way that delivers the nutritious foods children need, boosts local economies and transforms food systems in a healthier, more resilient nation.
