The First Lady Rachael Ruto has urged African leaders to invest in school feeding programs as a crucial step towards securing the future of the continent.
Mrs. Ruto made an impassioned call for increased funding in school feeding initiatives, emphasizing their importance in keeping children in school and ensuring they receive the education necessary for the continent’s future development.
“The best way to ensure children stay in school and learn is by providing them with a nutritious, hot meal every day through programs like ours,” the First Lady stressed.
Speaking at Kaptembwa Primary School in Nakuru during celebrations to mark this year’s World Children’s Day, Mrs. Ruto said Kenya targets to attain 10 million meals in schools per day by 2030.
“Currently we are feeding 2.5 million learners per day in our schools. Our target is to reach 7.5 million learners within the next four years. I petition county governments to allocate more resources to support the school feeding program,” she stated.
While challenging Members of Parliament to allocate more resources to the Ministry of Health to facilitate the initiative, the First Lady indicated that the school feeding program should not be viewed as an expense, but a future investment.
She challenged African and world leaders to commit to investing in children by supporting school feeding programs.
“By doing so, we are not only ensuring their success but also the success of Africa as a whole,” she said.
Mrs. Ruto pledged that her office would continue supporting initiatives towards combating hunger and malnutrition in schools such as establishment of kitchen gardens in schools to grow short term nutritional crops such as vegetables and herbs and creation of fruit gardens.
She pointed out that school feeding programmes are an important part of any developing nation’s plan for economic growth. Kenya, she affirmed should be no exception.
The First Lady observed that devolved units that have initiated school feeding programmes can attest to increased enrolment and retention of school-going children
“School feeding programmes are thus an equalizer that enables dreams one plate at a time. For some beneficiaries, the meal could be the only sure one they have for the day,” she pointed out.
The First Lady advised that schools that have big chunks of land should take advantage of the same and create model farms from where they can both feed and educate their learners and, by extension, the community.
She maintained that the school feeding programme was a key pillar of education, ensuring low dropout and higher transition in lower classes.
The First Lady explained that the school feeding programme was a source of nutrition as malnourished children in marginalized areas cannot concentrate in classes.
By Jane Ngugi and Dennis Rasto
