The Rockefeller Foundation has highlighted the critical intersection between school feeding programs and climate change, emphasizing the need for sustainable practices in providing meals to children.
Speaking on the sidelines of the just concluded 2024 African Development Bank (AfDB) Annual meetings in Nairobi, Manager Food at Rockefeller Foundation Kagwiria Koome noted that school feeding is the largest safety net program reaching over 400 million children and over 66 million of those children are in Africa; globally she said they are spending about $48 billion per year to feed the children.
“In Kenya where the government is feeding over 2 million children that they are spending over Ksh 4 billion annually in procurement of food. That’s a substantial amount of money that can shift our food systems. Making these meals more planet-friendly can play a significant role in a country’s response to climate change.” She said.
Kagwiria underscored the need of reshaping food systems to mitigate environmental impact while addressing social needs.
Adding that by adopting planet-friendly meal strategies, such as incorporating drought-resistant crops and sourcing from local farmers, countries can reduce carbon emissions and promote resilience to climate change.
“Promoting school menus that consist of drought-resistant crops such as sorghum, millet, cowpeas, green grams apart from being nutritious they also require less water to grow therefore can be grown in arid areas. Sourcing food directly from small holder farmers instead of importing food would decrease carbon emissions, she noted.
“Another opportunity is transitioning towards clean cooking – For preparation of school meals over 90% of them are prepared using open fires – it is estimated for a school of 400 children they use 150 tons of charcoal annually to prepare their school meals translating to 56 acres annually for just one school – we should not destroy our planet so that we can feed our children,’ she added.
The Manager also called for support of climate-friendly education initiatives at the school level saying; ‘The best way to teach children is to show and tell.’
She emphasised that climate-smart school meal programmes present an exceptional opportunity for countries in Africa for the implementation of climate-friendly policies, as they can contribute to the triple challenge of meeting climate, child health, and biodiversity goals by driving positive changes in nutrition and food systems transformation.
She pointed that against against the backdrop of the ongoing global financial restructuring discussions, the relevance of addressing school feeding issues has became apparent.
She highlighted that food price inflation has increased the cost of school meals provision. Noting that in low-income countries, just 18% of primary school children currently benefit from a daily nutritious meal at school.
Kagwiri said high debt levels have led, in turn, to high debt service levels, squeezing spending on the social sectors and other key development priorities noting that in low-income countries, in 2023, debt service amounted to on average 57.5% of budget revenues.
She called on governments’ to prioritise the social programs such as the school feeding even as they negotiate on how they resolve sovereign debt problems.
According to her some options will include: exploring opportunities for debt restructuring that could include debt swaps for school feeding; exploring opportunities for tapping into new forms of funding including carbon credits; sharing of best practices from other countries that could benefit African countries for example Bolivia which has reached universal coverage for school meals and funds 70% of its budget from hydrocarbon taxes and Guatemala which funds its school feeding program through allocating 0.8% of VAT taxes to school feeding programs.
Asked on the role of Rockerfeller Foundation in supporting Governments in expanding school meal programs, she said their primary strategy involves three pillars with the first being working with Governments to increase school meals.
“We are supporting The National Council for Nomadic Education in Kenya (NACONEK) with their strategy in expanding school meals across Africa. NACONEK has committed to a universal program that aligns with climate-smart objectives. The integration of climate-smart school meals is a fundamental pillar to reaching 4 million children this year and over 10 million children by 2030.”
Secondly, where they are school meals, she said RF makes them better.
“We do menu engineering to increase the diversity and nutritional value of meals, focusing on fortified whole grains and biofortified beans. We offer technical support and promote public education on choosing whole grains over refined cereals to extract 20-30% more flour, enhancing food and nutritional security.”
Lastly is global advocacy on school meals which she mentioned is done through climate-smart school meals and clean cooking technologies can improve health, reducing environmental impact, and lessening financial burdens by decreasing fuel consumption
“As a philanthropy we acknowledge the importance of supporting government entities to scale up and expand school feeding programs. Governments are the primary funding entities for programs like this. Through collaboration and supporting one another our goal is to reach to as my children as possible and make school feeding programs accessible for everyone.”
She said ultimately, sustainable school feeding practices are not only essential for children’s well-being but also contribute to building resilient communities and combating climate change.
“School meals give tens of millions of children in these countries their only reliable meal of the day. Expanding school feeding programs in ways that promote the procurement of highly nutritious food will make those children healthier even as it catalyzes larger changes in the food system.”
