On a dusty schoolyard in Kajiado County, south of Nairobi, Kenya, a sense of excitement fills the air as the lunch bell rings at G.K. Athi River Primary School. Hundreds of children eagerly line up, clutching plastic containers, ready to receive what for many is the only hot meal they’ll have that day. On the menu: ugali maize porridge made of fortified whole grain, sorghum, and high-iron beans.
“On one of my many visits to the Athi River School, I asked Mary, a 10-year-old girl what she thought about the sorghum and beans meal, and she said she loved the taste,” says Betty Kibaara, Director of the Food Initiative at The Rockefeller Foundation, Africa Region Office.
Mary’s experience is just one of many that highlight the impact of school meals in Kenya. For over a decade, the Cup of Uji program has been on a mission to provide nutritious meals to Kenya’s most vulnerable children, and with the launch of the National School Meals Coalition in October 2024, the promise of a daily meal will soon extend to learners across the country.
For Francis Otieno Amonde, founder of Cup of Uji, the journey started in 2011 in a classroom at Nyatwere Primary School in Homa Bay County, where his mother, Mrs. Berrit Kalolo Amonde was a teacher. “I remember the children in my mother’s class— so many of them looked frail and malnourished,” he recalls.
Amonde began with what he could afford— fortified porridge, known as “uji” in Kiswahili. “At first, I was feeding about 100 preschool children from my own pocket,” he recalls.
Over the years, Cup of Uji expanded its reach, and in 2023, a game-changing moment arrived when The Rockefeller Foundation awarded the program a grant to pilot a comprehensive school meals initiative at G.K. Athi River Primary School. This marked the first time the program expanded beyond porridge to offer hot lunches, a major milestone in its journey.
“From an African perspective, school meals are not just a nice-to-have. This is the only hot meal about 20% of children in Kenya will get,” says William Asiko, Vice President of The Rockefeller Foundation’s Africa Regional Office.
The significance of these meals has been shown to extend beyond nutrition and health— directly impacting school attendance, especially for girls, who are often pulled out of school to help with household chores when food is scarce. This creates “a ripple effect that strengthens communities,” Asiko explains.
In regions like Kajiado County, where G.K. Athi River Primary School is located, climate change has exacerbated food insecurity. Extended droughts have negatively affected agricultural productivity and decimated livestock, forcing families to make heartbreaking decisions, like pulling children out of school or marrying daughters off to help make ends meet.
By supporting local farmers and using climate-smart practices, school meals are also helping to build more resilient communities and economies.
With the pilot program at Athi River, over 79,000 hot lunches have been served since October 2023, reaching 800 students daily. The program has also created jobs, employing local community members as cooks and servers, making it a boon for both children and their communities.
“Expanding school feeding programs in ways that promote the procurement of highly nutritious food will make those children healthier even as it catalyzes larger changes in the food system,” says Roy Steiner, Senior Vice President for The Rockefeller Foundation’s Food Initiative.
In addition to feeding children and creating jobs, the pilot is a first step in transforming how Kenyans eat and think about food from an early age. Ugali, a staple dish in Kenya, is often made with refined maize flour, which strips away the most nutritious parts of the grain. However, the program is now using whole grain flour, which retains more nutrients and reduces waste.
“If you serve whole grain flour, it’s healthier and you save 20% of the crop,” explains Asiko. “Early exposure to whole grains in schools can shape children’s preferences, encouraging healthier choices as they grow.”
The program’s focus on whole grains is part of a larger movement to make school meals not only more nutritious but also sustainable. By working with local farmers to grow crops like high-iron beans and sorghum— both resilient to climate change— the program is helping to create a sustainable supply chain that benefits both students and smallholder farmers.
“If you say we are going to insist, that as a government, we will only procure whole grain, or fortified beans, or whole grain flour for the school meals, you begin to drive systems change with respect to what farmers will produce,” Asiko explains. “This approach helps farmers grow crops that are better for the environment, while ensuring that children receive the nutrition they need.”
The school meals program also presents an opportunity to drive sustainable solutions. One key aspect of this is the introduction of clean cooking technologies. With the Rockefeller grant, Cup of Uji has installed clean energy solutions, such as briquettes at Athi River Primary School. These innovations are not only more environmentally friendly but also reduce the health risks associated with traditional cooking methods, which often rely on firewood and emit harmful smoke.
The Rockefeller grant has enabled further support for the testing of several different opportunities, with an objective of creating scalable and replicable solutions for school feeding programs beyond Athi River. These have included menu engineering, a school garden and a fruit orchard, which sustain the program.
“The grant from Rockefeller Foundation has been transformational,” says Amonde. “For the first time, we are providing lunch menus, not just porridge, and it’s making a difference. The children are now eating sorghum and beans, high-iron beans, and even rice. We’ve also introduced clean cooking technologies to make the process more sustainable.”
The launch of Kenya’s Scale Up Plan in October 2024 represents a transformative next step toward universal school meals in Kenya. With the support of The Rockefeller Foundation and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the initiative aims to provide hot, nutritious meals to over 10 million children by 2030, making a monumental shift in the fight against hunger and educational inequity.
The program also aims to change attitudes and behaviors towards nutritious foods, inspiring systems change, while also contributing to the country’s climate goals.
“The planet-friendly approach to school feeding will be at the heart of the scale up and focus of the coalition,” says Cabinet Secretary Ministry of Education, Julius Migos Ogamba.
“This is because we are aware of the environmental impact of the scale-up of this program, but also of its transformative power to help farmers and communities adapt to climate change if we get it right; for example, through climate-smart agriculture and shifting away from the current 90% use of firewood towards cleaner sources of cooking.”
The Organization of African First Ladies for Development (OAFLAD) has been instrumental in driving this growth and has played a key role in The Rockefeller Foundation’s advocacy efforts.
“In every country that we have engaged a first lady about school meals, we have seen commitments from government go up,” Asiko explains of Rockefeller’s engagement with African first ladies. “In Kenya, for example, they’ve increased the number of children accessing meals from 1.2 million in 2021 and to date have reached 2.6 million. The first ladies being involved is definitely something quite powerful.”
Kenya’s First Lady, Her Excellency Rachel Ruto, is a vocal advocate for school feeding programs, and highlighted their transformative power at the Rockefeller Foundation-OAFLAD Round-Table Discussion on the Power of School Meals to Advance Education Outcomes, on the sidelines of the 79th United Nations General Assembly.
“School meals are a game-changer for learner concentration and engagement in the classroom. Research shows that access to nutritious meals not only boosts cognitive function, but also enhances academic performance, making school a more effective learning environment,” she says. “A plate of food is power in a child’s hands, giving them the power to determine their future through education.”
Kenya’s school meals initiative is a model for the world. By combining nutrition, education, and climate resilience, the program is addressing some of the most pressing challenges facing the country and the planet. As the National School Meals Coalition works to scale these efforts, the program’s holistic approach offers a roadmap for other nations looking to improve both food security and environmental sustainability.
“Kenya’s drive to scale up and implement our climate ambitions in school meals is something we felt we needed to reach all children with climate-smart school meals by 2030,” said Kenya’s Environment and Forestry Minister, Ms. Rosalinda Soipan Tuya at the Nourishing the planet, sustaining future event hosted by the School Meals Coalition at COP28 in Dubai.
A plate of food is more than just a meal— it’s a tool for change.
As Betty Kibaara says, “We owe the children of Africa the opportunity to experience indigenous foods while also providing a structured market from smallholder farmers who are growing resilient crops.”
With continued support from the Kenyan government, The Rockefeller Foundation and NGOs like Cup of Uji, the vision of universal, climate-smart school meals is on the horizon— offering a brighter, healthier future for millions of children across Kenya.
