Since 1980, WFP and the Ministry of Edu-cation have jointly implemented a school meals programme targeting the most food-insecure districts with the lowest enrolment and comple-tion rates and high gender disparities - including all primary schools in the marginalized arid and semi-arid lands of Kenya and in the informal settlements of Nairobi.

In 2009, the Government of Kenya started a national home grown school feeding programme to provide a meal to children at school; to sup-port education achievements while also stim-

ulating local agricultural production through purchase of food from smallholder farmers and local food suppliers. Unlike other school feeding programmes, home grown school feeding mod-els seek to deliver simultaneously on ‘local’ eco-nomic growth and social protection or poverty reduction objectives.

Today, WFP and the Government of Kenya are giving a hot lunch to 1.5 million children attending school across the country each day of the school term.

Kenya Development Portfolio (2014-2018)Supporting National SchoolMeals ProgrammeN O V E M B E R 2 0 1 6

Facts and Figures School meals in Kenya started in the 1980s Today, WFP and the Government of Kenya are reaching 1.5 million school-going children

with hot meals The Government-led home grown schools meals programme was launched in 2009 950,000 children have transitioned to national home grown school feeding programme Every dollar invested in the national home grown school feeding programme returns

US$9

Overview

WFP and the Government of Kenya are

reaching 1.5 million school-going children with hot meals

5

©WFP/William Orlale

Transition to Government ownership

After more than three decades of joint WFP-Government programming, the transition of school feeding activities to Government owner-ship is underway and due to be completed by Jan-uary 2019. WFP supports the hand-over process through training, joint missions and exchange of staff to build national capacity in procurement, data collection, reporting, monitoring and evalu-ation, and programme management.

To pave the way for a smooth transition from WFP support to a fully government-led programme, WFP developed a cash-transfers-to-schools model to support the national home grown school feeding programme to expand sus-tainably into the more challenging environments of the arid lands. The model aims to strengthen food procurement systems, accountability, trans-parency and local markets.

In November 2016, over 950,000 pupils in the semi-arid and arid areas are receiving meals under the Government-led programme. Our goal is for all school feeding activities to be handed over the government by 2019.

©WFP/Rose Ogolla

Students studying at Dabasiti primary, Isiolo.

Importance of investing in school meals

2 | September 2016

School meals help ensure every child has access to education, health and nutrition.

A daily school meal provides a strong incentive to send children to school and keep them there, it helps to increase school enrollment and attendance, decrease drop-out rates, and improve cognitive abilities.

Schools are an ideal setting for pro-moting good health, nutrition, hygiene and sanitation practices in early life. Health, nutrition and hygiene education focuses on developing the knowledge, attitudes, values and life skills needed to make appropriate and positive health-related decisions.

School Meal Programmes are an invest-ment in the development of human capital. A WFP-MasterCard study shows that every dollar invested in the national school meals programme returns US$9, as each child benefits from the meals has better health, better nutrition, better education during their childhood, and subsequently becomes a more productive working adult, living longer and enjoying a healthier life.

A sustainable school feeding pro-gramme that incorporates nutritious and diet diverse meals linked to smallholder farmer production is a key strategy for the achievement of the Zero Hunger Challenge and the SDGs.

The Home Grown School Meals Pro-gramme supports access to education while also stimulating local economic development (including agricultural production) through procurement of food from local structured markets, increasing farms’ income and creating additional jobs in the community.

School meals motivate development by functioning as a safety net to help vulnerable households and communi-ties survive difficult times and shocks without compromising their nutrition and food security.

over 950,000 pupils in the

semi-arid and arid areas are receiving

meals under the Government-led

programme

©WFP/Martin Karimi

School pupils handwashing before school meals at SereOlipe primary school, Samburu.

| 3September 2016

Strategic focus Capacity strengthening of Government to

manage a sustainable expansion of the school meals to a national programme

Support County Governments to take respon-sibility for school feeding in early childhood development centres in line with devolution

To advocate for an increased budget allocation for school feeding in Kenya

Support the Government to update the school health and nutrition strategy so as to further embed school feeding in the national policy and strategy framework.

Work with smallholder farmers and traders to ena-ble them to competitively supply food to the home grown school meals market. This will play a role in stimulating agricultural production

Strengthen accountability in manage-ment of resources meant for school meals programme through oversight and beneficiary feedback mechanism (toll-free helpline)

Promote nutrition diversity and for-tification to enrich meals provided to school children so as to enhance nutritional value.

WFP will continue to provide tech-nical support and capacity development to key actors – such as teachers, county education officers, farmers and traders as well as harnessing schools as an ideal setting for promoting good nutrition and hygiene practices early in life.

In addition WFP is focusing on improving quality and safety standards along the supply chain in the Home Grown School Meals Programme, including adequate kitchen, storage and sanitation facilities in schools.

HGSMP is the Government funded programme which now cov-ers all the semi-arid counties that are largely inhabited by smallholder farmers; and it is progressively expanding into the arid counties. This national cash-based pro-gramme transfers funds directly to schools, enabling them to purchase food directly from local suppliers and farmers. School meals in three arid counties, formerly supported by WFP, are now under the HGSMP. These are Isiolo, Samburu and Tana River Counties. Baringo and West Pokot will follow in 2018.

HGSMP is an investment in the local economy, linking small-scale farmers and suppliers to an ongo-

ing school market. The programme promotes smallholder farmer pro-ductivity and capacity by offering a widespread market that is accessi-ble to farmers due its decentralized procurement approach. It con-tributes to creating additional job opportunities in the community, boosting the local economy.

The Programme is a key strat-egy for achieving the Zero Hunger Challenge and the Sustainable Development Goals. It has the potential to make substantial con-tributions to the achievement of multiple SDG targets, such as those related to education, gender equity and women’s empowerment, family income, and health.

What is the ‘home grown school meals programme’?

©WFP/Amanda Lawrence-Brown

©WFP/Anthony Njuguna

4 | September 2016

Map of Programme Coverage

WFP-supported school meals programmeGovernment Home Grown School Meals ProgrammeIn transit — WFP cash transfers to schools

County boundery

Waterbodies

The bounderies, names and designations used on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations

N

0 25 50 100 150 200 KilometresScale 1:5,000,000

MARSABIT

ETHIOPIA

SOMALIA

UGANDA

TANZANIA

LEGENDINDIAN OCEAN

SAMBURU

TURKANA

WESTPOKOT

MANDERA

WAJIR

GARISSA

TANA-RIVER

KITUI

MAKUENI

MACHAKOS

LAIKIPIA

NAROK

KAJIADO

TAITA-TAVETA

KWALE

KILIFI

MOMBASA

LAMU

NYERI THARAKA-NITHI

EMBU

NAIROBI

KISUMU

BARINGO

KEIY

O-M

ARAK

WET

UASI

N-GI

SHU

ISIOLO

SOUTHSUDAN

Diversifying the school meal’s diet

Traditionally, the school lunch comprises of a cereal, pulses, iodized salt and fortified vegetable oil. In 2016, WFP started looking into ways of sustainably diversifying this diet and at the same time give school children more variety. In Nairobi’s informal settlements, WFP is introducing fresh

fruits and vegetables to school meals on a trial basis, after a market study determined this could cost as little as 2 Kenyan shillings (US$0.02) per meal per day. WFP is also seeking to trans-form fresh food rejected for cosmetic reasons into available, cost effective, nutritious meals for school children.

The project dubbed ‘Transformers’ seeks to put fresh fruits and vegetables on the plates of school children, and

to address the waste of nutritious and fresh produce rejected for purely cos-metic reasons.

In the arid Garissa and Tur-kana counties, WFP has introduced micronutrients (using ready-to-use nutrient powders) to school meals. This will boost the intake of nutrients for 150,000 children in these regions where fruits and vegetables are not readily available.

If you would like more information, please contact lara.fossi@wfp.orgcharisse.tillman@wfp.org

PartnersTogether with WFP, the Ministry of Education

is in charge of implementing school meals pro-gramme in Kenya. WFP is also collaborating with:

• Ministry of Health • County governments Resourcing

WFP’s school meals programme is facing a severe funding shortfall. WFP does not have resources to provide meals when schools reopen for Term 1 in 2017 (January - April). This will affect 458,000 children located in the most needy Kenya’s arid counties that have lowest enrol-ment rates, low attendance and the highest food insecurity.

While adequate resources are available to cover the cash transfers to schools until end of Term 1 in April 2017, uncertainty jeopardises WFP-GoK’s transition schedule and handover process, which could undermine the gains made so far.

School meals are recognized as one of the most important and dependable safety nets for children and their families in Kenya. The meals represent an indirect income transfer to households and they are a powerful incentive for families to con-tinue to invest in education, despite their liveli-hoods being under stress. Without school meals, access to education in the arid areas would be substantially disrupted, with likely reductions in enrolment, lower attendance and high drop-out rate of children.

“As a moran (a Samburu warrior), the school lunch is the only meal I eat for the day. Traditionally, we are not

allowed to eat at home. The food helps us get an education. At my age, I would

probably have dropped out of school.” James Leitore,

A pupil at Lorubae primary school, Samburu