As the world celebrated World Food Day last week, social entrepreneur and systems innovator Wawira Njiru, Founder and CEO of Food4Education, reached a new impact milestone: serving over 600,000 meals each school day at roughly $0.30 per child, and more than 150 million meals to date since she launched F4E over a decade ago.
Starting in 2012, when she served just 25 children in Ruiru, a small Kenyan town, Njiru today oversees one of Africa’s largest school feeding programs. At the heart of this system is the Giga Kitchen in Nairobi — Africa’s largest green kitchen — capable of preparing over 60,000 meals daily within a 20km radius using clean energy and water-saving steam technology. It is a model of scale and efficiency, linking local farmers, technology, and logistics into a seamless supply chain.
Food4Education’s blueprint now includes 30 centralized kitchens across Kenya, 17 co-owned with county governments, anchoring a model that is both locally rooted and nationally scalable. Building on this momentum, the organization is expanding into Zambia and exploring partnerships in Rwanda and Ethiopia, taking its proven approach beyond Kenya to demonstrate how African-led solutions can shape the future of school feeding across the continent.
This isn’t just a story of growth—it’s the story of a blueprint for Africa that has the potential to transform how Africa and potentially the world can feed their children.
Wawira’s work has received widespread global recognition. For the launch of Climate Week last month in New York City, Wawira was invited to ring the opening bell at Nasdaq’s joining other global innovators and investors at the Building the Future Summit, spotlighting Africa’s role in driving global systems change. Earlier this year, she delivered a powerful TED Talk on the main stage in Vancouver, earning a standing ovation as she reframed school meals as critical infrastructure for learning, equity, and prosperity.
She has also received the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, was named among TIME100’s Most Influential Companies, and honored as both a Bloomberg New Economy Catalyst and a CNBC Changemaker, among other accolades.
Beyond the accolades, Njiru is playing a direct role in shaping Kenya’s national school feeding policy through her contributions to the Council of Governors, helping embed sustainability and scalability into government programs.
This year’s World Food Day theme, “Hand in Hand for Better Foods and a Better Future”; mirrors Food4Education’s story. Its end-to-end system connects 5,000 smallholder farmers to reliable markets, creates over 4,400 jobs (most held by women and parents of the children served), and runs green energy kitchens powered by eco-briquettes and water-saving steam technology. Its Tap2Eat cashless wristband ensures every meal is traceable, providing the organization with a vast amount of data regarding the effectiveness of the program.
As Njiru often says: “Charity may feed for a day, but systems feed for generations. Africa can feed its future—child by child, classroom by classroom, nation by nation.”
By 2050, one in four members of the global workforce will be African. The systems built in Africa’s schools today will shape not just the continent’s trajectory, but the global future and Food4Education is proving that the smartest global investment is in Africa’s next generation.
As Njiru and her team set their sights on reaching 3 million children by 2030, one thing is clear: World Food Day 2025 is not just about food—it is about the future. And from Nairobi to New York, Wawira Njiru is showing the world what is possible when Africa leads.
Wawira Njiru’s Food4Education Showcases African-led Solutions on World Food Day
Social entrepreneur Wawira Njiru, Founder and CEO of Food4Education, is celebrating World Food Day this year with a new milestone, serving over 600,000 nutritious meals daily across Kenya and having delivered more than 150 million meals to date since 2012.
Building on over a decade of learning, Njiru established herself as a leading global voice for sustainable development and food security as Food4Education shares its blueprint for sustainable, nutritious, and affordable school feeding programs across Africa.
Her pioneering and tech-driven solution to end classroom hunger across Africa has been recognized as one of TIME100’s “Most Influential Companies” and received widespread international recognition recently at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
While in New York she also rang the bell at NASDAQ’s Building the Future Summit and was featured at the Gates Foundation’s Goalkeepers event joining Bill Gates and other leaders to discuss progress toward the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
“Charity may feed for a day, but systems feed for generations,” Njiru says, echoing her powerful message she brought to the UN, emphasizing that, “Africa can feed its future, child by child, classroom by classroom, nation by nation.”
Celebrated annually on October 16th and coordinated by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Food Day highlights the importance of sustainable food systems and the right to safe, nutritious food for all. This year’s theme, “Hand in Hand for Better Foods and a Better Future,” underpins the story of Food4Educations’ new film, spotlighting collaboration for social impact that is locally led, nationally owned, and designed to last.
The timing of Food4Education’s new short film release could not be more impactful or inspirational as it details their successful, end-to-end model from local farms to clean-energy kitchens and its Tap2Eat cashless technology. The film highlights the wider industry and economic impact of Food4Education as well, including more than 5,000 smallholder farmers connected to stable markets, over 4,400 jobs created, and an impact that reaches across both urban and rural counties from Nairobi to Murang’a, Mombasa to Kisumu.
SHORT-FILM EMBED: URL
“By 2050, one in four members of the global workforce will be African, so what happens in Africa’s classrooms today will shape the global workforce tomorrow,” Njiru states.
Across Africa, 86% of governments already budget for school meals but what is often missing are systems and trust to deliver meals at scale and that’s why Food4Education’s blueprint is built for the future with transparent technology and co-investment with catalytic partners and parents, showcasing what’s possible for countries across Africa.
At approximately $0.30 per meal, Food4Education’s innovative business minded approach sends a clear signal that investing in the next generation of Africa is the smartest global investment today, and as they ramp-up to feed 3 million children across Africa by 2030, Njiru and Food4Education will continue to scale at speed their unique African-led blueprint for school-feeding that transforms child nutrition, education and local economics alike.