The Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO) has announced a significant initiative to combat child malnutrition

Nairobi, Kenya – In collaboration with the government and other stakeholders, KALRO has set a target to provide nutritious food to 4 million children by 2025, with an ambitious goal to reach 10 million by 2030. This initiative is part of a broader effort to use modern farming technology to address food security and nutrition challenges.

According to Kenya News Agency, KALRO’s Agricultural Value Chain Specialist, the organisation is responding to a worrying trend where children, particularly those attending school hungry, are increasingly consuming unhealthy, processed meals instead of fresh, traditional foods. Omondi emphasized the importance of making sustainable, nutritious foods available and affordable to all segments of society, including the poorest. He shared these insights during a workshop that brought together food systems researchers and the media.

The workshop highlighted the benefits of school feeding programmes, which have been shown to improve health and education outcomes. These programmes, which provide regular meals to economically vulnerable children, have been linked to increased school attendance, reduced gender gaps in health, and lower dropout rates. Despite these benefits, Omondi noted that the influence of school feeding programmes on food system policies and processes has not been sufficiently studied. He pointed out that although Kenya initiated its school feeding programme 45 years ago, only two million children have benefited from it to date.

Charity Waweru, a researcher from the Africa Population and Health Research Centre, added that increased climate awareness presents an opportunity for governments to integrate environment-friendly food policies into national school meal programmes. She mentioned that countries like Ghana, Kenya, and Senegal are advancing Double-Duty Policy Boundless (DDPBs), which address the double burden of malnutrition and play a crucial role in transforming food systems.

The event also shed light on a new project focusing on School Feeding Programmes (SFPs) in Kenya and Rwanda. This project aims to tackle food insecurity, particularly among urban children, by strengthening capacities and increasing the demand for healthy food in impoverished urban areas. It is part of a series of initiatives supported by IDRC’s partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation under the Catalyzing Change for Healthy and Sustainable Food Systems Initiative.