By Mary Njeri, Global School Meals Director, World Vision International
Growing up in Kenya, education was hailed as the gateway to a great life, development and success. Despite coming from a humble background, my parents ensured that we had nutritious food to eat every day, including local vegetables and fruits. Unfortunately, we did not have meals in school and hence we had to run back home, about three miles from our school, for lunch every day, no matter whether it was a rainy or a sunny day. My mother would make a great effort to return home from her farming duties to ensure that she had a hot meal ready for us. By the time we got home, we had about 30 minutes to stand and gulp down the meal and then run back before the bell rang for the afternoon classes.
This was not the case for our neighbours. Their mother had to go looking for casual labour every day to put food on the table. Many times, they would get home and find that she was still out working, which meant there was no lunch for them. If they were lucky, they would find her just back from one of her jobs, having made some black tea and bread for their lunch. Given the poor diet, my neighbour’s son, who was in my class, was often sick and missed school for weeks.
Before long, he dropped out and settled on looking for casual work to support his mother. He now has a very hard time raising his family, running small businesses, while his wife does casual work washing clothes for people in the village. I fear that his children may suffer the same fate.
Listening to those most at risk
My neighbour’s story came back to me when I was listening to children and adults share the various challenges that they encounter in the recent Nutrition Dialogues, an initiative led by World Vision and the 4SD Foundation aimed at hearing from and amplifying the voices of those most-at risk from malnourishment, especially children and women. Between August and December 2024, more than 10,000 people in 54 countries attended workshops where they shared their difficulties accessing proper nutrition, and proposed solutions to improve things.
One of the most moving revelations from the global summary of the Nutrition Dialogues initiative is the pervasive issue of hunger and malnutrition among school-aged children. In many countries, families struggle to provide even the most basic meals, let alone nutritious ones. This lack of proper nutrition has a direct impact on children’s ability to concentrate, learn and perform well in school. The comments from children were as inspiring as they were heartbreaking. “Sometimes I come to school without eating anything. It is hard to listen to the teacher when my stomach is empty,” one child said from Kenya.
The link between nutrition and education is well-documented. As with my neighbour, malnourished children are more likely to have lower academic performance, higher absenteeism and increased dropout rates. Nutritious school meals can help mitigate these issues by ensuring that children receive the essential nutrients they need to stay healthy, focused and engaged in their studies.
Recommendations for decision-makers
Participants in the Nutrition Dialogues called for urgent actions to improve food security and nutrition, especially for women and children, and for collaboration between governments, NGOs and the private sector in these areas:
- Increase household income and purchasing power. It is essential to support local employment schemes and public works, ensuring fair and reliable remuneration. Vocational training in agriculture, commerce, and traditional crafts, along with financial literacy and community saving initiatives, can enhance skills and financial stability. Supporting young entrepreneurs with digital technology and providing financial mechanisms for start-ups can boost local economic development. Women need dedicated savings groups and skills development. Displaced people need access to job markets in host communities. Ensuring children stay in school to gain necessary skills for future employment is also crucial.
- Enhance school meal programmes. Consistent, high-quality meals are needed in rural and urban areas, accessible to all income levels, with a focus on areas with high food insecurity. Local food procurement, adequate funding, and timely payment to providers are essential. School authorities should ensure meals are nutritious, diverse, sufficient and regular. Children prefer tasty, healthy meals and suggest limiting unhealthy processed foods on school grounds.
- Promote conversations about nutrition. It is important to raise community nutrition knowledge through dialogue and public awareness campaigns. Community health promoters, health service providers, youth leaders and other local figures play crucial roles. Public information campaigns should address cultural beliefs and nutrition awareness in workforce policies. Better nutritional practices and maternal and infant nutrition need to be discussed. Education should be community-driven, in local languages, and focus on local foods. Children see themselves as advocates for better nutrition and request the necessary knowledge to lead peer-to-peer and child-led campaigns.
- Expand social protection coverage. Broadening, diversifying and localising interventions like food assistance, cash transfers, and social safety nets, is needed to alleviate malnutrition. These interventions should be adapted to local contexts and monitored using digital mapping to identify high-need areas. Effective support for vulnerable people requires resilient supply chains and logistics and leveraging community-driven initiatives, like kitchens and food donations. Locally sourced foods can enhance livelihoods. Protection initiatives must avoid discrimination, ensuring fair selection and service of beneficiaries.
- Expand access to water, sanitation and hygiene services is vital. Reducing waterborne diseases and maintaining hygiene are key. Improving the proximity of water sources to homes will reduce gender-based violence risks. It will involve constructing and maintaining boreholes, wells and piped systems, which will ensure water access for agriculture and livestock. Installing improved sanitation facilities in schools, daycare and community centres, promoting hygiene education through training teachers and daycare operators, and prioritizing refugee camps and informal settlements for potable water systems and sanitation infrastructure are all necessary steps.
Investing in nutritious school meals has benefits that extend beyond the classroom. Well-nourished children are healthier, more resilient and better equipped to contribute to their communities and economies in the future. By prioritising nutrition, governments can help break the cycle of poverty and build a stronger, more prosperous society.
The time to act is now. Governments must recognise the urgency of providing nutritious school meals as a fundamental step towards quality education and human capital development. As the results of the Nutrition Dialogues have shown, access to good nutrition means access to other rights to live, grow and flourish.
In the words of a young participant from India: “When we eat well, we can learn well. And when we learn well, we can dream big.”
