Kenya's 'Food for Education' launches 4th mega kitchen as it seeks to feed 1M children

The kitchen, which will be a first of its kind, is set to feed 10,000 children bringing it a step closer to its goal of feeding 1,000,000 school children in the next 5 years.

They currently operate in Nairobi, Kiambu and Mombasa County feeding 33,000 children every day. 

The organization's founder, Ms.Wawira Njiru, said that the mega kitchen is set to utilize steam gas technology to prepare the lunch meals attributing the instalment to ensuring an efficient work flow.

“We wanted to find a more sustainable and efficient way that will help us feed more kids. With this steam gas technology, we are able to save on cooking time as it is faster, explore batch cooking all of which ultimately helps us deliver more nutritious lunch meals to more children faster and efficiently,” she said in a statement released to Media houses on Thursday.

“We are looking at replicating this across more kitchens that we have in the pipeline this year, starting with our Mombasa kitchen set to be fully operational by April 2022 and will feed 30,000 children daily,” Wawira added. 

With more dynamic ways to reach out many people, the organisation introduced a digital mobile platform Tap2Eat using cutting edge FinTech to enable public primary school children access nutritious food for education.

Parents pay for the subsidised lunches using mobile money. The amount is credited to a virtual wallet linked to an NFC smart wrist band which students use to then Tap2Eat in under 5 seconds.

As a non-profit organization, they say they work "to provide nutritious everyday lunch meals to children from public schools to improve education outcomes and address nutritional deficiencies, complementing the Government of Kenya's school feeding program in rural and semi-arid areas."

launched founded in 2012, the organization has grown so fast because it is addressing an urgent problem in Kenya. An estimated 29% of children in rural areas and 20% in urban areas are stunted, according to research surveys. 

They are working on setting up kitchens in the major counties in Kenya that are pivotal for its expansion.