A lunch prepared for 25 hungry schoolchildren sparked an idea that has since grown into one of Africa’s most celebrated school feeding programmes.
Wawira Njiru, a Kenyan nutritionist and social innovator who leads Food4Education as founder and chief executive, is now heading to Berlin to collect an international award.
Single Meal to National Movement
Njiru has been named this year’s recipient of the German Africa Prize, an award that recognises Africans whose work drives social and economic progress across the continent.
What she built goes well beyond putting food on plates. Food4Education now reaches more than 660,000 learners across Kenya, a figure that captures the scale of growth since those earliest days of a single school lunch.
The programme sources roughly 80% of its ingredients from local smallholder farmers, turning school meals into a reliable income stream for agricultural communities.
It also employs more than 6,000 people, the majority of them women and young people, meaning that every meal served carries economic weight far beyond the school gate.
Model Attracting Continental Interest
The German Africa Foundation has described this model as a form of economic infrastructure, drawing a direct line between a child’s midday meal and the livelihoods of farmers, workers and the wider community.
Njiru’s approach has begun drawing attention beyond Kenya’s borders. Food4Education is already sharing its experience with governments elsewhere on the continent as African countries seek sustainable solutions to child nutrition and local economic development.
The organisation’s model demonstrates that a school feeding programme can simultaneously address hunger, create employment, support smallholder agriculture and keep money circulating within local economies.
A nutritious meal for a child, in this framework, also helps create demand for a farmer’s harvest and sustains a worker’s income.
Berlin Ceremony in November
Njiru will formally receive the German Africa Prize at a ceremony in Berlin on November 4, 2026.
Germany’s Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Reem Alabali Radovan, will present the award.
The recognition marks a journey that started with a straightforward ambition: making sure children did not sit in classrooms too hungry to learn.
That ambition has since expanded into a model connecting nutrition, education and economic opportunity in ways that continue to attract interest across Africa.
