Kenyan entrepreneur Wawira Njiru scales school feeding initiative
Her organisation, Food4Education, now employs 6,000 people and provides more than 700,000 meals daily to children in Kenya.
Kenyan entrepreneur Wawira Njiru has grown her school-feeding initiative from a small fundraiser for 25 children into a large-scale operation, according to the Times of India.
Njiru established a small kitchen in Ruiru, Kenya, in 2012 to provide nutritious meals to students. The initiative eventually developed into Food4Education, an organisation that now operates in over 2,700 schools.
The organisation employs more than 6,000 people and provides more than 700,000 meals daily. To manage operations, Food4Education introduced the Tap2Eat system in 2019, which uses digital wristbands for children to collect meals.
The organisation sources around 80 per cent of its food from small-scale agricultural producers. This model allows parents to contribute small amounts towards meals, alongside support from donors and government programmes.
Njiru aims to reach one million children every day by 2027. She intends to expand the school-feeding model beyond Kenya to make nutritious meals more accessible across Africa.