Food for Education

Food for Education leverages partnerships at scale to expand Kenya’s national school feeding programs. Using technology and smart supply chains, they source fresh, local ingredients from smallholder farmers to provide affordable daily meals, helping vulnerable children learn more effectively. Food for Education, which has served over 52 million meals, is currently feeding more than 350,000 children daily and is on track to serve over 550,000 children per day by June 2025.

The Problem
Millions of children in low-income countries go to school hungry. In Kenya, one in every four children is stunted due to poor nutrition, with 51% of the population being food insecure and 46% living in extreme poverty. Critical issues with chronic and acute undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies persist in many regions due to low food production and broken food systems. Hungry children cannot grow or learn. The devastating effects of hunger on child health, school performance, and ability to learn significantly hinder their overall productivity and potential. Statistics have shown that stunted children grow up to earn 22% less than non-stunted children, and non-stunted children’s chances of getting out of poverty are 33% higher than children who are stunted.

Historically, foreign donors delivering imported bulk staples to government warehouses have driven children’s feeding programs in Africa, but these donors have encountered many implementation and sustainability issues. Amidst foreign aid cuts, donor programs on the continent are shutting down, and the attempted handover to local governments has revealed the fragility of these programs and the lack of scalable models within them. In addition to eliminating dependence on foreign aid, Food for Education provides affordable, high-quality, and nutritious meals to urban and semi-urban public primary school children. With the aim of improving nutrition and education outcomes, Food for Education gives children the opportunity to break out of the poverty cycle.

The Solution
School feeding programs are one of the most critical interventions to improve education and nutrition. They boost enrollment, reduce absenteeism, and help children stay in school. In the classroom, these programs enhance children’s cognitive abilities, contributing significantly to their learning. Food for Education improves educational outcomes for vulnerable children by providing subsidized nutritious meals in public primary schools. By sourcing food from local smallholder farmers and producing thousands of high-quality meals in a central kitchen, they lower costs and improve efficiency.

Through their Tap2Eat technology, Food for Education has revolutionized parent engagement as a key support partner in the micro-payments platform. Their sustainable, scalable model has created the first true path to feeding at least 250 million African children in urban and semi-urban primary schools. By 2027, Food for Education aims to provide daily meals to 1 million students every day. When they eventually scale to 1 million children daily, parent payment will cover 40% of Food for Education’s operational costs to deliver meals. Government subsidies will cover another 25% of these costs, with philanthropy covering the remainder. Food for Education’s program is the largest independent and centrally run school feeding program in East Africa, and they will serve as a model of excellence for replication across Africa.