Wawira Njiru awarded German Africa Prize for school feeding initiative

The German Africa Foundation (DAS) is presenting the German Africa Prize to Wawira Njiru — a woman whose initiative has transformed schools meals throughout Kenya.

In the beginning, Njiru started by feeding a regular meal to 25 schoolchildren; at that time, she was only a student with a dream to scale up her operation and provide a daily meal to 100 children.

Today, her work reaches more than 660,000 children at over 1,900 schools across Kenya.

Through her social enterprise, Food4Education (F4E), Njiru has "transformed a charitable idea into a functioning school-feeding system that reaches children, engages families, and strengthens local economic cycles," said Claus Stäcker, chair of the independent Africa Prize jury and director of programs for Africa at Deutsche Welle (DW), which serves as the media partner of the annual event.

Stäcker referred to the F4E approach as "an African solution to a global problem," adding that in honoring her out of "dozens of outstanding individuals," the German Africa Foundation had "once again recognized an extraordinary young woman, who tenaciously pursues her dreams and convictions, serving as an example for thousands of committed and innovative Africans."

Creating a sustainable supply chain for school meals

School meals in Kenya typically rely on a combination of funding: Parents cover part of the costs, which are supplemented by donations and government funds.

With F4E, that model extends to including local sources: about 80% of the food distributed by the organization comes from small-scale farmers.

This way, school meals are freshly sourced — and farmers have a reliable market for selling their produce.

"For a long time, school meals were viewed as charity. We've proven that it's economic infrastructure," said 35-year-old Njiru.

'Stubborn' with a vision

Njiru told DW that receiving the award is "an incredible honor for me and for all of Food4Education, our 6,000 staff who wake up every day to make sure that kids are fed," a job that has taken a great deal of dedication and perseverance through the years.

"I'm stubborn. Once I figure I want something, I try and work towards it. And, you know, it's hard to tell me something is not possible", she explained.

Through her organization — which now also assists other governments in planning similar programs — she said she has found a solution tailored to African realities.

DAS is a nonpartisan foundation dedicated to promoting a nuanced view of Africa in political circles and among the German public.

Since 1993, it has awarded the German Africa Prize to individuals from African countries whose ideas and work inspire solutions to global issues of the future beyond their countries of origin. The award has gone to outstanding individuals in Zimbabwe, Cameroon and Sierra Leone in recent years.

Reem Alabali Radovan, Germany's Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, will present the prize on November 4 at the Allianz Forum in Berlin.