Concern as Treasury cuts school feeding funds by Sh600m

Millions of school going children who have been benefiting from the State-backed feeding programme are staring at deprivation after the Treasury proposed to downsize the funding by Sh600 million in the upcoming financial year.

In the freshly-prepared budgetary estimates, the Treasury has proposed to allocate Sh3 billion towards the critical programme that runs in 26 counties that are considered marginalised, down from an approved expenditure of Sh3.6 billion in the current fiscal year ending next month.

The reduction in the allocation negates the spirit of the President William Ruto-led Kenya Kwanza regime’s election manifesto, which had promised to double the budget to raise the number of beneficiaries.

At the time, the gross expenditure for the financial year ending June 2023 was Sh4.1 billion.

“Kenya Kwanza government will double the amount of money allocated to the school feeding programme to immediately raise the number of beneficiaries from two million to four million and to provide conditional grants to county governments to extend the programme and raise the numbers to eight million in primary and Early Child Development (ECD) schools,” the manifesto reads.

The government, together with its development partners, initiated the school feeding programme to provide mid-day meals to children in public primary schools, especially those in arid, semi-arid areas and urban slums that are prone to drought and food insecurity.

Among the most popularised under this is Nairobi City County’s ‘Dishi na County’ run with support from the Ministry of Education.

A study published in March last year by the African Population and Health Research Centre on the experiences of schools in implementing school meal programmes acknowledged the critical role the provision plays.

According to the study, school meals enhanced enrolment, attendance and concentration in class by the learners, highlighting that some of the students who lacked food at home relied on the school meal as their only meal for the day.

“Financial constraints, including insufficient government funding and delays in fee payments from parents, often hinder schools’ ability to provide balanced meals,” said the institution in its release at the time.

“As a result, most of the school meals have little diversity; they mainly include cereals (maize/rice) and legumes/pulse (beans/green grams) and are often deficient in fruits, vegetables and animal protein that are important sources of nutrients required for optimal growth of children and adolescents.”

In its recommendations, the organisation called for increased government funding for the programme, expansion of the initiative to encompass low-cost private schools as well as implementation of school gardens and resource-efficient farming practices.

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