School Feeding Initiative in Disarray following Exit of the World Food Programme

Kenyan pupils who are dependent on the current school feeding programme are going to be hardest hit by a recent directive from the government to cut out 500m from the budget.

With the project having lasted less than a year, schools around the country will take have to device new strategies to deal with the situation.

The move by the government was inspired after the World Food Programme stopped being part of the school feeding initiative.

Just last week, the Education ministry expressed concern about the likely collapse of the school feeding program because of extensive budget cuts.

Basic education PS Belio Kipsang said the cuts will affect efforts to retains children in school arid and semi-arid areas. Kipsang says the direct impact of this will be a reduction in the number of pupils receiving food in target areas.

“School feeding program is so critical… those of us who come from a place where getting three meals is not a problem may not appreciate what happens to our children who are in ASAL areas,” Kipsang told the Parliament’s Education committee on Thursday.

The school feeding program started out in 1980s in a bid to provide 4.3 million primary school students with milk. However, the project went down under in a short time thanks to the high operational costs.

After free primary education became a thing in 2003, the Ministry of Education had devised a sustainable framework for a government led schools meals program in the year 2008.