Food for Education (F4E) has opened a kitchen in Kakamega, providing meals for over 14,000 children in 28 public primary schools.
Speaking to KNA, Food for Education (F4E) Area Lead for Kisumu and Kakamega, Micheal Njiru, said Kakamega marks the 10th County that the organisation has established its presence across the country.
Other counties are Kiambu, Murang’a, Nyeri, Uasin-Gishu, Nairobi, Kisumu, Kajiado, Machakos, and Mombasa.
Njiru said F4E is currently feeding 450, 000 children per day in over 1,263 primary schools in Kenya.
He said they are targeting to open more kitchens across the country and provide food to at least 1 million public primary school children, who face challenges during lunch break by 2027.
“The main goal for the organisation is to eradicate classroom hunger, and we have realised that food is really a big issue, so we are basically centred in public primary schools in Kenya,” Njiru noted.
“The reception in Kakamega has been great; the children are enjoying the programme, and parents are also enjoying the program. The feedback that we have received from the parents and the school administration is that the programme is really positive and they have actually felt the impact,” he noted.
In the process of providing food for children in Kakamega, the organisation has also created employment for locals, with 32 recruited to serve as Tap to Eat (Tap2Eat) School Managers (TSMs), 61 Food Servers in the schools, and 27 workers in the kitchen.
F4E Kakamega Kitchen Manager, Linet Ndungwa, says the organisation provides a balanced diet comprising carbohydrates, proteins, and vitamins to the students during the five school days.
“We cook rice, which is our constant carbohydrate, from Monday to Friday, then we switch between beans, special Ndengu, and green grams, which we alternate based on the Menu that is provided to us by our production and planning team. We also add cabbages, carrots, and, of course, onions and tomatoes; now, this meal combined makes a complete, balanced diet,” she added.
Ndungwa noted that they observe high hygienic standards during the whole cycle of food preparation, delivery, and serving to students.
“Before any staff starts working, they undergo a three-day’s training. In the first two days, they are trained on how things work and what we do, and then on the third day, we do practical training on what one should do in the kitchen. We also have a food safety team that has formulated Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that are supposed to be adhered to at all times,” she pointed out.
“Staff have hairnets, and every staff member who handles food is supposed to have gloves, which prevent contamination during food handling; they wear masks and wear hairnets. There is the uniform, and also we have handwashing stations all-round the kitchen so that a staff cleans hands often while handling food and when switching between handling foodstuffs and non-foodstuffs,” she added.
The Tap to Eat School Manager (TSM) for Nyayo Tea Zone Primary School in Lurambi, Simon Sichenje, says TSMs are always present over lunchtime in their respective schools to assist the children with their meals.
“As a TSM, I tap the tags that the children have on their wrists so that they can eat during lunch time. Reception of food in school by students is good, and they are excited and happy; they like attending school every day because they don’t want to miss on the food,” Sichenje added.
He said parents pay Sh. 15 per child, per day, for them to be included in the food for education lunch programme.
Once they contribute the amount, every child is given a wrist tag with an account number. During lunch time, a TSM will scan the tags using terminals, which automatically deducts the cost for that day for a meal—’just one meal per child’, he explained.
“A parent contributes to the lunch programme through MPESA using a paybill number, and the account number is the number that was used to register the child. The payments will go directly to the child’s account,” he explained.
“We have taken time to speak to the children and encouraged them to protect the wrist tags to enable them to eat every day, and if by accident a child has misplaced it, the child would be allowed to eat that day using their parent’s account number that was used during registration; after that, the parent will be required to replace the tag by purchasing another one. One tag costs around Sh. 150,” Sichenje disclosed.
“For the few days we have served lunch, reports from parents are that the health of their children has improved, and they have developed focus to attend school always. Head teachers have received us well. They like it because the service we are offering helps to manage time, as it takes a very short time for students to eat and get back to class on time to continue with studies,” he pointed out.
“As we continue feeding the children, my expectation is that every student would have good health while learning, and students would have an easy time coming to school to learn and reduce absenteeism,” he noted.
The Deputy Head Teacher, Nyayo Tea Zone Primary School, Gentricks Weleta Okwako, said the school has been having a school feeding programme where parents were supposed to contribute beans and maize so that students could get a meal, though it was unsustainable as most parents could not afford it.
“Since the introduction of this programme of F4E, we have had an easy time as teachers because the food is brought when ready and it is good food. At lunch time, we release the learners to go and have their lunch; they are served quickly, and by 1.30pm, all the students would have completed lunch and ready to start the afternoon learning sessions,” the deputy head teacher noted.
“The lunch programme has made the work of parents easier; instead of worrying about what their children will eat for lunch, they focus on the welfare of their children and put more focus in their daily activities of providing for their families,” she added.
The School President, Blessing Rispar, said the lunch programme has enabled them to save time used going home for lunch.
Geoffrey Lumumba, a parent, said the programme has relieved him and enabled him to concentrate on his daily activities of providing for his family.
He noted that before, he used to give his child Sh. 50 daily to cater for lunch but noted that F4E Sh. 15 per day is a big relief.
“My child likes going to school and is always excited due to the lunch programme. I am hoping that since they are saving a lot of time, my child will perform better,” he said.
By Moses Wekesa
