Zambia partners with Food4Education to expand school feeding programme

The government of Zambia has signed a four-year partnership with Kenya’s Food4Education aimed at strengthening the country's national school feeding programme and expanding access to nutritious meals for millions of learners.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), signed on Monday by Zambia's Ministry of Education and the Kenya-founded social enterprise, establishes a long-term technical cooperation framework to support the government's goal of increasing the number of children receiving school meals from 4.6 million across 8,193 schools to 5.6 million by the end of 2026.

Under the agreement, Food4Education will provide technical support in five key areas: policy and institutional coordination, programme design and operational systems, data and digital innovation, budgeting and financing, and infrastructure development.

Zambia's Permanent Secretary for Education Services Kelvin Mambwe described universal school feeding as an investment in both children's futures and the country's economy.

"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," he said.

The partnership seeks to build a government-led school feeding system that improves learning outcomes, enhances child nutrition, supports local agriculture and creates sustainable economic opportunities.

Food4Education Founder and Chief Executive Officer Wawira Njiru said Zambia's commitment demonstrates how African governments can use school feeding programmes as a driver of economic growth.

"Zambia 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," she said.

She added that Food4Education's role is to support and accelerate Zambia's existing efforts rather than implement the programme directly.

The organisation brings more than 14 years of experience in building government-aligned school feeding systems in Kenya, where it has served more than 200 million meals since 2012.

It sources about 80 per cent of its food from thousands of local smallholder farmers and operates Tap2Eat, a digital platform that manages millions of school feeding transactions annually.

The partnership comes as Zambia continues to expand access to education following the introduction of its Free Education Policy in 2022, which added two million learners to the country's education system and increased demand for school meals.

According to the partners, effective government-led school feeding programmes generate benefits beyond education by creating reliable markets for smallholder farmers, supporting women and youth employment, strengthening local food systems and building digital public infrastructure.

The agreement also reinforces Zambia's growing role in advancing school feeding initiatives across Africa ahead of its hosting of the Global Child Nutrition Forum in November 2026, which will bring together governments, development partners and practitioners to discuss the future of school feeding on the continent.