King Letsie III of Lesotho and President of the African Development Bank Akinwumi Adesina have commended Kenya for its commitment to education retention through school meals programme.

Dr Adesina now wants the rest of Africa to replicate the programme as a step towards quality education, besides raising the numbers.

Speaking in Nairobi after a benchmarking tour in Ruiru in Kiambu County, the King Letsie III and his entourage accompanied by Adesina and the ministry of education officials were marvelled by the gains accruing from the school feeding programme in the country.

“African governments can integrate school feeding in their national fabric to nurture minds for a better future of our continent,” said the king adding that African leaders should take the lead in championing school feeding and end school age hunger.

King Letsie III took cognisant of model young philanthropists like Kenyan Wawira Njiru, the founder of ‘food-for-education’ who was recognised as the United Nations Person of the year in October 2021 for taking the lead in start-ups in nutrition for others to replicate scaling up impactful school feeding programs.

Dr Adesina decried unhealthy and stunted growth of most African children occasioned by malnutrition saying, it was a leadership issue and governments should invest in education to realise a sustainable future for the African continent and beyond. He called for mainstreaming and advocacy for all children to eat well since an empty stomach can interfere with the cognitive ability of the brain.

Being at the centre of our sustainable economic growth, the ADB president was conferred with the Chief of the Order of the Golden Heart (CGH), Kenya’s highest national distinction and honour by President William Ruto recently for the bank’s role in Kenya’s sustainable economic growth.

Children and adolescents spend about 75 per cent of their time in a school environment throughout the year. That is where they consume more than half of their daily meals, grow up and mature to become adults.

During the Second Global Ministerial Meeting held in Nairobi in October 2024, President Ruto committed to working with former President Emmanuel Macron of France and President Lula of Brazil among others, to champion school meals at global stage, particularly in the context of the G20-led Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty under Brazil’s leadership.

The National School Meals Coalition Launched in October last year is now operational. The coalition has gone ahead and formed its own technical working groups or initiatives aligning to the Global School Meals Initiative.

The government recognised the need and introduced the School Meals Programme to provide complementary mid-day meals to school children to increase school enrolment, improve retention and performance.

This was aimed at making it more sustainable and nationally owned home-grown School Meals Programme by locally sourcing nutritious and culturally acceptable foods for supply to schools. Consequently, the numbers for school enrolment, retention, completion, learning outcomes, nutrition and general wellbeing has jumped from 240,000 to 2.6 million leaners over the years.

The programme currently covers learners in all the 11 arid counties, selected schools in the 15 semi -arid counties, urban informal settlements, Special Needs Schools and the camp- based Refugee schools.

The School Meals Programmes are an indispensable safety net for nourishing school going children, creating jobs, fostering green economic growth and long-term development of the local communities.

The government is committed and charting the path towards universal coverage by scaling up provision of healthy, nutritious and climate-friendly meals from the current reach of 2.6 million to 10 million children by 2030, according to the ministry education reports.

Towards this commitment, an operational plan for the scale-up has been developed with technical assistance from the Rockefeller Foundation o effectively implement its scale-up plan.

The government is transitioning to a home-grown School Meals Programme leveraging an aggregator model, currently piloted in two counties, prioritizing food sourced by local smallholder farmers.

• A Tell / KNA report / By Joseph Kamolo Mutua

1. King Letsie III of Lesotho Speaking at the Food for Education Giga Kitchen in Nairobi during his country benchmarking tour. Photo by Joseph Kamolo Mutua

2. Dr Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank speaking at the Food for Education Giga Kitchen in Nairobi. Photo by Joseph Kamolo Mutua

3. Wawira Njiru, Founder Food for Education speaking at the Food for Education Giga Kitchen in Nairobi in presence of King Letsie III and President of the African Development Bank Dr. Akinwumi Adesina. Photo by Joseph Kamolo Mutua