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FOOD FOR THOUGHT
THE SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAMME
At the end of 2016 the Samburu School Lunch Programme was feeding 250 children at two different schools in the Westgate Community Conservancy. Since the start of 2017 the programme has successfully been expanded to another seven schools, so that it is now serving hot, freshly cooked lunches at nine different schools to 1110 students. Often leftover food from lunch is also provided to boarding school pupils in the evenings. Each day the students are provided with a healthy nutritious lunch to meet their needs. For some students this might be their only proper meal of the day, but for all students this extra nutrition is vital to their academic performances and provides a strong incentive for the parents to send their children to school.
‘Proper nutrition is the single most important factor to childhood academic performance’ – The United Nations
In 2017 we have provided 250,000 lunches to 1150 students in 9 different schools
HOW DO WE DO THIS?
At the start of each term the nine schools (Kiltmany, Lpus, Ngutuk, Naisunyai, Remot, Sasaab, Sukuroi, Narapai and Lempaute) receive a delivery of maize, beans, flour and oil according to the number of students, the ages of the students, and the number of weeks in the school term. The headteachers receive a text message with the details of the delivery, the community is also informed, and an independent vehicle accompanies from delivery truck to ensure that everything is correctly distributed.
Each school employs its own chef who prepares and serves the meals to the children each day. The schools sometimes receive food from a government programme and if this is delivered then the schools are able to feed the children an additional mid morning meal and an evening meal if they have boarding students. If there is food remaining it is safely stored for the next term.
Each month a vehicle makes spots checks on the schools at lunchtime to check their food stocks and to ensure that the food programme is being properly implemented.
The Safari Collection is serving hot, freshly cooked lunches at nine different schools
WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT TO FEED THE NEXT GENERATION?
2017 is the worst drought year across the Sahelian region of Africa since the 1980’s and the conditions are scheduled to continue into 2018. The availability of food in the Samburu area is poor and incidences of food insecurity are high. When families are struggling to feed their children school attendance numbers drop, as the children do not have the energy to walk long distances to go to school, and their parents are more focused on other matters.
A daily school meal provides a strong incentive to send children to school and keep them there. It allows the children to focus on their studies, rather than their stomachs. Providing school meals has many and varied benefits, most importantly, clinical trials show a critical link between learning and school children’s health and nutrition, suggesting a substantial gain in educational effectiveness from improving children’s nutrition and health.
Nutrition is vital to academic performance and provides a strong incentive for the parents to send their children to school
LOOKING TOWARDS THE FUTURE
We would like to give thanks to all our generous donors in 2017 and begin our calls for fundraising now for 2018 to help us maintain this essential programme that helps to feed our future.
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