Students in our School Feeding Program receive a life altering change through the provision of school meals every school day. This initiative gives the children in our program an opportunity to both learn, and be nourished, in a way they have never before experienced in their lives. Without early intervention of nutrition, the future of these students will be tarnished by their inadequate educational foundation due to the stress of hunger and the malnutrition which they suffer. Not only does nutrition cause physical harm to their growing bodies and developing brains, it also causes emotional stress.
When a child doesn’t know where or when their next meal is coming, they have trouble concentrating in the classroom. When a child’s nervous system is overwhelmed by the fear of not having food, it is harder for them to access the logical thinking portions of their brain, which also inhibits learning. We are confident that providing daily meals to the children in our program improves their quality of life, reduce their overall level of stress, improves their health, reduce absenteeism due to illness and therefore improves their school performance.
When a child can begin to learn, develop and grow, they open their future educational opportunities.
According to UNICEF, malnutrition leads to poor school performance, which can result in future income reduction and even child death and the leading cause of malnutrition in children is poverty. “Death is the worst outcome of malnutrition’s ugly grasp, but it’s not the only outcome. Children who survive can face a long list of devastating side effects that last a lifetime, preventing them from achieving success in school and pursuing meaningful work in adulthood. Such effects of malnutrition include increased vulnerability to diseases, developmental delays, stunted growth and even blindness”.
UNICEF web article: “What is Malnutrition?” https://www.unicef.ca/en/malnutrition
About our Feeding Program
This program was started in 2018 at a single school in the Kwa Njenga slum of Nairobi that had 160 students. By 2022 we had expanded to 7,240 primary school students receiving school breakfast and lunch every school day.
- 5,020 – students in Kajiado County rural Maasai community schools – FAMINE AFFECTED
- 2,220 – Nairobi students in slum areas of Umoja and Kayole
In 2023 we have funding to expand to over 50,000 students located in Kajiado County which is currently experiencing famine caused by the worst drought in the region in over 40 years.
“More than 3,000,000 Kenyans are currently starving due to the ongoing drought, with 10 counties severely affected by famine” People Daily 10/25/2022.
