Food4Education founder Wawira Njiru bags 2026 German Africa Prize

Kenyan nutritionist and social entrepreneur Wawira Njiru, the founder of Food4Education (F4E), has been named the recipient of the 2026 German Africa Prize for her innovative approach to school feeding.

The Germany Africa Foundation recognised Njiru for transforming school feeding from a basic welfare intervention into a model that supports education, local livelihoods and food systems.

“Wawira Njiru demonstrates that school feeding can be much more than simply providing meals. With Food4Education, she has created a system that reaches children, involves families and strengthens local economic cycles,” said Claus Stäcker, president of the German Africa Prize jury.

Njiru said the award reflects a broader shift in how school feeding is viewed in Africa.

“For too long, school feeding was treated as charity. We have proven it is economic infrastructure. What we have built in Kenya shows what is possible when African solutions are designed around our own realities and built to work at scale,” she said.

Njiru founded F4E in 2012 to provide meals to 25 children. The initiative has since grown into a nationwide programme reaching more than 660,000 children in over 1,900 schools across Kenya, with more than 200 million meals served.

Through F4E, Njiru works with families, schools, smallholder farmers and governments to build scalable school feeding systems that combine local food production, job creation and economic development.

The programme uses technology-driven meal distribution, centralised kitchens and climate-conscious cooking methods to provide affordable and nutritious meals to children in public schools.

Its Tap2Eat system allows families to contribute towards meals using cards or wearable NFC wristbands, while helping F4E plan food procurement, production and distribution across its kitchens.

F4E says it provides a nutritious meal for about 30 cents, while keeping food waste below two per cent.

In 2021, Njiru was named United Nations Person of the Year in Kenya for her leadership in improving children's access to nutritious school meals.

The German Africa Prize will be presented to Njiru on November 4 at the Allianz Forum in Berlin by Germany's Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Reem Alabali Radovan.