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| Zambia's Permanent Secretary for Education Services, Dr Kelvin Mambwe (second right), exchanges signed Memoranda of Understanding with Food4Education Founder and CEO, Ms Wawira Njiru (second left), following the formalisation of a long-term partnership to provide technical support aimed at strengthening and scaling Zambia's national school feeding programme. Looking on are the Permanent Secretary for Administration in the Office of the Vice President, Mrs Lillian Kapusana (first right), and Food4Education Zambia Country Representative, Mr Brian Kayongo (first left). Photo: Courtesy |
The Ministry of Education in Zambia and Food4Education have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen Zambia's school feeding programme, which currently reaches 4.6 million children across 8,193 schools, and support the government's ambition to scale to 5.6 million by the end of 2026.
The MoU establishes a long-term technical cooperation framework through which Food4Education will support the Ministry of Education across five priority areas: policy and institutional coordination; programme design and operational systems; data, digitalisation and innovation; budgeting, financing and resource utilisation; and infrastructure and equipment. Together, this work serves Zambia's commitment to build a government-led school feeding system that strengthens learning, improves nutrition, supports local agriculture and creates long-term economic opportunity.
"Universal school feeding is an investment in our children's futures and our nation's economic growth. This partnership with Food4Education helps us strengthen the systems that turn this investment into long-term returns for Zambia," said Dr. Kelvin Mambwe, Permanent Secretary, Education Services, Zambia.
Africa loses up to 16.5% of GDP annually to childhood hunger, yet school feeding can generate up to $20 in returns for every $1 invested.
With two-thirds of African governments now carrying dedicated budget lines for school feeding, the question is no longer whether to invest.
It is how to design and deliver at scale. A proven blueprint, adapted for local contexts, economies and communities, is what turns commitment into delivery.
"Zambia is doing something that the continent needs to see. It is putting its own treasury and the weight of several ministries behind its own children, building school feeding as economic infrastructure that strengthens agriculture, creates dignified livelihoods, builds human capital, and grows the economy. Food4Education is here to support what Zambia's leadership has already started, and to help accelerate the school feeding economy across Africa," said Wawira Njiru, Founder and CEO of Food4Education.
Done well, government-led school feeding creates value far beyond the classroom. It connects smallholder farmers to stable markets, creates dignified livelihoods across the food value chain particularly for women and youth, strengthens local food systems, and builds digital public infrastructure.
This partnership's ambition is to demonstrate what it looks like for African governments to build, finance, and deliver public systems that endure.
Food4Education is a uniquely African solution to a global problem, fit for any local context. The not-for-profit social enterprise brings 14 years of experience building government-aligned school feeding systems in Kenya, where it has delivered over 200 million meals, sources 80% of food locally from thousands of smallholder farmers, and operates Tap2Eat, F4E's proprietary digital operating system for school feeding, processing millions of transactions annually.
Invited by the Government of Zambia to support this next phase of work, F4E's role is technical: helping the government strengthen the delivery systems that make universal school feeding sustainable at scale.
The Free Education Policy implemented in 2022 brought 2 million additional learners into the system, making the scale of delivery a central national priority. The partnership builds on Zambia's established school feeding ecosystem.
F4E's contribution complements the ongoing efforts of the existing partners, with the government continuing to lead delivery. F4E's role does not involve programme implementation.
The agreement further reinforces Zambia's growing leadership in school feeding across Africa as the country prepares to host the Global Child Nutrition Forum (GCNF) in November 2026, the world's premier gathering on school feeding, bringing together governments, development partners and practitioners from across the continent and beyond.
