The Food for Education (FFE) initiative is set to benefit more than 20,000 students attending public schools in the Nyali sub-county in Mombasa County.
The Food for Education program is intended to feed students attending public schools with there being eight kitchens in five counties at the moment.
The program is intended to combat malnutrition and encourage students to stay in school through the provision of nutritious school meals.
The counties that will benefit from the program are Nairobi, Kiambu, Murang’a, Kisumu and Mombasa.
During the grand opening of a Kshs. 100 Million kitchen at Pwani School for Children with mental disabilities, Wawira Njiru, the FEE Chief Executive Officer (CEO) said that Mombasa has the largest kitchen that provides meals to Nyali and Kisauni sub-counties.
“We are hoping to work with Mombasa County to continue scaling school feeding programs because we are looking forward to working with more schools to ensure children get nutritious food, grow and stay in schools,” said Wawira.
She said that the kitchen is the first contemporary cooking equipment in Kenya that prepares food faster, more thoroughly and more hygienically without having a negative impact on the environment of workers.
“This technology ensures that meals are produced in a very energy-efficient way and in Kenya, we are providing food every day to 93,000 children. We are feeding 75,000 with food and 18,000 in Murang’a who are being given porridge,” she added.
Njeru said that their parents pay Kshs. 15 instead of Kshs. 30 because they wish to ensure they can afford the food.
The ‘Tap to Eat’ mechanism has been utilized to ensure that the Kshs 15 transaction is facilitated and this simplifies payment for parents.
In the Tap to Eat, payments are made through MPESA PayBill and then the cash is transferred to an E-Wallet, allowing youngsters to just tap their wristwatches to receive food.
The Governor of Mombasa County Abdullah Nassir said that the county is committed and is prepared to work together FFE on a privately sponsored initiative.
“The parents have been told to pay Kshs. 15 but for us as a county, we are committing to support ECD children in all schools which are under the FE program,” said Abdullah.
Abdullah revealed that the revenue would originate from the finance bill, generating its own revenue source.
“We are going to commit that the single business permit that we are going to collect from the private schools, universities and colleges and the ones collected from Miraa business, the money should be allocated in educating and feeding our children,” he said.
In another story, some primary schools in Homa Bay county have been provided with items by a non-governmental organization in response to the difficulties children face in their early years of education.
The learners have been provided with equipment that will make them more comfortable in class and motivate them to stay in school.
The equipment includes chairs and tables that were distributed by the non-profit organization Vestergaard Frandsen East Africa Company to schools in Mrembe (Karachuonyo), Pala (Kabondo Kasipul), Ondiko (Kasipul), Rabuor Ponge (Rangwe), Nyarach (Ndhiwa), Aringo (Suba North) and Olodo (Homa Bay Town).