A tech-driven school feeding program in Nairobi County has doubled enrolment in public schools, and reduced absenteeism by 99%, while relieving parents’ financial stress, according to county officials.
The “Dishi na County” program that was launched in collaboration with Food for Education is bridging the gap in education in Kenya’s capital, according to Esther Mogusu, Director of Nutrition and Wellness at Nairobi County.
Encouraging statistics
“Enrollment has surged across schools,” Ms. Mogusu commented. “Toi Primary grew from 400 to 900 students, Olympic Primary added over 1,000 new students, and Dandora ECD’s pre-primary enrollment jumped from 40 to 100.”
In addition to boosting enrollment, the program has improved student participation in extracurricular activities and also reduced malnutrition rates among children. Schools are now able to offer students well-balanced meals consisting of proteins, carbohydrates, and fruit which is sometimes the only balanced diet many students receive in a day.
“For some of these children, this meal is the only meal they have,” Mogusu explained.
Since the rollout of the program, many pupils from private schools have transferred to public schools in order to take advantage of the affordable and healthy food.
“We have seen an increase in admission where public schools were shunned on grounds of insufficient and low-quality food,” Mogusu said.
The program, which replaced a previous initiative that charged US$0.23 per meal, now subsidizes the cost to just $US0.03878 but for those students unable to afford even this amount, the county covers the cost.
Since its inception in August last year, the program has expanded from 80,000 children to 250,000 and has served over 17 million meals. It is predicted to reach 320,000 children by June 2025. The program has grown from operating just 10 kitchens to 17, one for each sub-county in Nairobi.
How it works
The Dishi na County initiative is built on technology and incorporates various software. Using the Tap2Eat digital platform, parents make payments for meals through M-PESA, a mobile money service that funds a virtual wallet that is linked to their child’s NFC-enabled wristband which the children then “tap to eat” to access meals quickly and efficiently.
This NFC technology enables real-time data collection on meal consumption, allowing schools and administrators to track attendance and payments, and assess the effectiveness of the program. The information collected also allows meal preparation to be adjusted, expansion into more schools, and the refinement of menus to capture nutritional needs. The data collected also provides the insights needed for continual improvement and enables the opportunity to learn and scale for sustainability and greater impact on learning outcomes.
Impact on parents and the community
The program has had a significant impact on both parents and the local community. For parents like Esther Muturi, it has brought substantial savings.
“I used to spend 90 shillings a day for my three children’s lunches. Now I only pay 15 shillings for their meals, which has made a huge difference,” she said.
The parents who used to take lunch to school now also have more time for productive activities.
According to Mogusu, public participation and community engagement were essential in gaining support for the initiative, particularly in addressing initial concerns from parents about food safety.
So far, four other counties, Muranga, Kiambu, Mombasa, and Kisumu in collaboration with Food for Education, have rolled out the program but under different names.
