School Feeding Proposal Kisumu County (Kenya)
School Feeding Proposal Kisumu County (Kenya)
ABBREVIATIONS
R.H.D: Resource Hub for Development
DEOs: District Education Officers
PTAs: Parents-Teachers Associations
MDG: Millennium Development Goal
SFPs: School Feeding Programme (s)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
I. PROGRAMME SUMMARY 1
II. Problem statement 1
III. PROGRAMME DESCRIPTION 2
IV. Project goals, objectives 3
V. Project Benefit and results 3
VI. PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION AND METHODOLOGY 4
VII. Programme Sustainability 5
VIII. MONITORING & EVALUATION 6
IX. Estimated food stuffs per school per term: 6
X. PROPOSSED PROGRAMME BUDGET 7
XI. APPENDIXES
XII. Organization Management Structure
XIII. Organization Registration Certificate
XIV. Programme Photos
XV. List of Programme team staffs
XVI. Programme Letter of approval from the Ministry of Education
XVII. SUNPPLEMENTARY APPENDIXES (available on request)
XVIII. Detailed Project Cost Estimates
XIX. Account Details
Programme Summary
Many communities in rural semi-arid areas in Kisumu County have currently re-stated their commitment to
education as a vital human right. The need for all people to have access to quality education is also regarded as
an essential plank for poverty reduction: human capital – education, knowledge, skills, access to and
understanding of information – as part of the livelihoods approach that recognizes poverty to go beyond a lack
of income. Education in the entire County is embedded in the Millennium Development Goals: MDG 2
(achieve universal primary education) and MDG 3 (promotes gender equality and empowers women, with
targets for eliminating gender disparity in education). School feeding programme also relates to MDG 1
(eradicate poverty and hunger).
As for the purpose of our programme, the on-going school feeding programme for girl’s schools in Kisumu
County has been understood as a programme that is implemented through poor rural schools, both Primary and
Secondary schools. R.H.D acts as food aid Organization, providing nutritious wet and dry foods as lunch meals
during the school day and Take-Home Ratios as operation that focuses on poor vulnerable and orphan children.
Since free primary and subsidized secondary education were introduced in 2003 by the government of Kenya,
the enrollments soared from 1.2 million in 2003 to 3.0 million in 2011. However, due to poverty; drop-out rates
have increased to 45%.
Problem Statement
Basic education is seen as a necessary condition for development. In addition, it is seen as a right for every
child. In rural girl’s schools, many schools have enrolled many vulnerable pupils and students whom their
parents are poor and some are totally orphans. More so, the introduction of free education resulted in increased
enrollments without looking into supporting programme relating to school feeding programme in arid and semi-
arid areas of Kenya. R.H.D has been the only organization assisting a total number (12) schools to carry out
school feeding programme in 7- Girls Primary Schools and 5- Girls Secondary Schools in poor rural areas of
Kisumu County. The organization through the District Education Officers (DEOs) works closely to identify
needy schools based on the number of orphans (pupils/students) and the institution nature (government school,
community school or orphanage). The following are the problems faced;
a. Many poor, orphaned pupils/ student drop-outs of schools due to poverty/ hunger. Since many pupils/
students are attracted to education through school feeding programme, some of them will no longer have
the enthusiasm of going to school and therefore forced early marriage.
b. Lack of adequate food stuffs to run the programme in the schools. Our organization has been managing
the programme through fundraisings, charitable donations from local food companies and well-wishers
or friends, whom are our sympathizers. Different meals cut off the problem of malnutrition associated
with poor dieting hence the need to provide pupils or students with a balanced diet.
c. The ever growing need by unsupported schools. Schools in poor rural areas, especially in semi-arid
areas where food security is low face tremendous problems to attaining and achieving basic education
amongst its people.
d. Lack of funds to support the programme. The amount of food stuffs needed is estimated to cost Ksh.
18,588,000 every term; with a probable increase due to the number of needy schools putting it at Ksh.
25,800,000. The programme risk failing due to lack of funds to support it. R.H.D currently is reaching
out some local companies, friends and donors for its support.
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Programme Description
R.H.D initiated the programme in 12- schools in 2011 as a viable support towards girl’s schools, poor
vulnerable children and orphans from their backgrounds to access foods while schooling. Going by the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), gender disparity in education among girl child remains a critical
subject to be looked at in poor rural areas where poverty is the order of the day.
In Kisumu County, major income disparities exist, and unemployment and poverty are widespread. Levels of
education among the girl child education vary among districts. In one districts, for instance, the poverty level is
60%; in another, only 14%. The poverty disparity is reflected in school enrollment levels. School enrollment in
one well-developed district is 76% for primary school-age children/ secondary students, while only 25% in a
less developed district.
Since its inception, Resource Hub for Development (R.H.D)-Kenya has assisted a total number (12) girl’s
schools to carry out school feeding programme in 7- Primary Schools and 5-Secondary Schools in poor rural
areas of Kisumu County; to support their school feeding programme. R.H.D provide different meal stuffs
towards the school lunch- based programme every term, running through all the three terms every year. Below,
is a list of food stuffs given to every school per term as demonstrated below:
50-bags of Maize 200 kilograms of white sugar 20- boxes of powdered milk White muffins
40-bags of dry beans 2 boxes of chocolate cookies 2-bags of green vegetables 15- (@25 litres cooking
oil)
50-bags of rice 10-bags of green grams
The food stuffs received are stored in the organization’s store and later distributed to the schools at specific
time. The organization covers the transportation cost and in the same way track and monitor; proper usage of
the food stuffs through monthly report by school head teachers/ principals. The programme focuses on poor,
orphaned girls in rural remote schools and is facing hunger. Currently, the programme is running in 12- rural
girls schools in the county and is believed to replicate regionally and cover more schools in other counties.
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Programme Goal, Objectives & Results
Goals: The goal of programme is to provide a school-based lunch for girl’s schools in Kisumu County, most of
whom are poor, orphans and vulnerable school children/ students.
Objectives: The main objective of the programme is to provide accountability and learning purposes in
achieving various educational modalities, gender disparity among girl-child from poor background. Increase the
number of discriminated, exploited and neglected girls; to enrollment in schools in all levels and maintain them
in the schools by providing easy way to access their education.
Project Results
Nutritional benefits. Through a well balanced lunch, it evidence that school feeding programme has a
positive impact on nutrition for participating children. In some instances, parents may provide less food
at home, and the school meal simply replaces a home meal rather than adding food to the child’s diet.
Impact on education and the link between hunger and learning. It is believed that children who are
hungry or chronically malnourished are less able to learn, regardless of the setting. But the converse—
that children in school feeding and food for education programmes are better able to learn—only holds
true when the food is accompanied by other inputs related to school quality.
Impact on attendance. The evidence strongly suggests that school feeding programs can increase
attendance rates, especially for girls. School feeding or take-home rations serve as incentives for
enrolling children in school and encouraging daily attendance. This is likely a short-term solution;
however, because if there is no change in the quality of schooling (or increase in intrinsic demand for
education) attendance will likely drop once the food incentive is removed. Girls who drop-out of school
tend to get married at an early age.
Alleviate short-term hunger in malnourished or otherwise well-nourished schoolchildren. Increase
the attention and concentration of children/students producing gains in cognitive function and learning.
Average Attendance for Girls during the feeding programme in 5 selected schools
during Feb - May
Feb. March. April. May. Average
00- 01- 00- 01- 00- 00-
'01 02 01 02 01 01-02 00-01 01-02 01 01-02
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Withur Girls Secondary
School
Form 1 98.4 97.9 97.2 96.7 97.5 96.6 96.2 96.4 97.3 96.9
Form 2 98.8 98.9 98.4 96.8 97.9 98.1 97.9 98.2 98.3 98
Form 3&4 98.6 98.9 98.6 97 98.4 97.3 97.8 98.6 98.4 98
Apoko Rehabilitation
Centre 97.9 97.4 97.0 94.7 95.7 95.3 94.8 95.7 96.4 95.8
In order to benefit rural girls at an average number of 6,427 Primary school students and 5,520 Secondary
students, R.H.D has adopted the following components while implementing the methodology to achieve the
expected result in school feeding programme (SFP);
1. Build a consensus on a policy and objectives that focuses on how school feeding can effectively
contribute to improving education and to meeting the nutrition and health needs of school-age
children. R.H.D through its Programme officers and District Education Officers (DEOs) usually work
in closeness to agree on what ‘problems’ or ‘situations’ the school feeding programme will address, who
the program will serve, and which program models are feasible for implementation. School feeding
programmes are highly visible and as a result often have a significant political dimension, particularly
since they can represent a considerable income transfer. This reality should not inhibit establishing a
policy and objectives that will take advantage of the substantial potential for improving the impact of
SFPs on education.
2. Develop targeting criteria and mechanisms that concentrate programme resources on high risk
children and communities. There is a built-in tendency towards universal coverage - providing meals
for all school-children particularly in schools that we support since all children in school throughout the
day will require food. Furthermore, programme coverage and targeting is always subject to a series of
political, logistical, technical and informational constraints. In view of the fact that resources are finite,
particularly in the poorest rural areas, and that providing food is expensive, targeting is a critical element
of any effort to improve the impact of a SFP on education. Targeting is essential if the programme is to
reach families and communities that lack the resources to adequately provide for their school-age
children or those that need to be motivated to enroll their children in school and to have them attend
more regularly.
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3. Analyze and identify alternative financing and cost options for SFPs.
The cost of school feeding programmes is a major issue for the stakeholders. Feeding programme of any
kind is expensive. Financing may include external assistance, but in all cases available resources, or the
potential to draw on them, are required. Cost alone can indicate little about the value of a SFP but,
unfortunately, cost-effectiveness analyses, which assess costs relative to impact on nutrition and
education outcomes, are for the most part unavailable. Nonetheless, implementing the recommendations
in this guide should help to ensure that the benefit-side of the program is enhanced while controlling the
cost side.
4. Elaborate appropriate guidelines for ration composition and the timing of school meals. R.H.D has
established appropriate ration guidelines, for programme officers and DEOs; to analyze the nutrition and
health needs of school-age children. Conditions in the education sector, such as levels of school
enrollment, attendance, and performance, the availability of infrastructure and the capacity to implement
different kinds of SFPs also need to be assessed. Information is also required on the community’s
perceptions and capacity to participate in school feeding programs.
5. Identify and address any potential bottlenecks in implementation; such as the availability of
supplies and other resources, the appropriateness of cooking practices and the management of
private sector inputs. The recommendation is particularly relevant for R.H.D programme officers who
are already operating a programme. Once school feeding programs are in place, altering them can meet
strong resistance, however, a range of new experiences is now available that has the potential to alleviate
some of the common obstacles to efficient and effective programming. Where a school feeding
programme already exists, a wealth of information is readily accessible; a critical step towards a better
programme is to thoroughly analyze this on-going experience.
6. Develop monitoring systems that focus on programme processes, that is, how a programme is
functioning, and institute an evaluation system to assess the impact of the program on specific
outcomes. The need to monitor and evaluate programs is not unique to SFPs, but this recommendation
is critical to increasing the impact of SFPs. Despite past experience; there is a dearth of concrete
information on the functioning and effectiveness of school feeding programs.
Programme Sustainability
R.H.D vision for the sustainability of its school feeding programme envisages the implementation of an
extensive approach targeting poor, orphaned school-age children/ students especially girls in poor rural areas of
Kisumu county to access quality education. The feeding component of the programme requires that through
School heads, PTAs and parents with the support of R.H.D to provide one meal per day throughout the school
terms (1-3) based on guidance from an R.H.D field programme officer). During the programme period, R.H.D
will increase the number of meals provided by schools daily and include breakfast. Accordingly, by the end of
the fourth year, the schools’ committees will take over the responsibility for the school-feeding component and
run it fully.
Currently the sustainability of the programme depends on continued support from friends, R.H.D fundraising
and donation of food stuffs from local private companies. The program needs to be more fully integrated into
the educational system. R.H.D intends to identify resources from donors, well wishers, friends and private
institutions to sustain the programme.
R.H.D also intends to introduce farming practices in schools farms through DEOs, PTAs, school headmasters/
principals, parents and children to participate in school farming for future provision and sustainability of food
security in their respective schools hence cutting out poverty.
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Monitoring & Evaluation
R.H.D field programme officers monitor and visit these schools at least once per week. They monitor and speak
to the pupils/students, teachers, and administrators, inspect documentation such as stock books, distribution
lists, and the school’s own attendance records. Each day, the catering personnel’s include one extra plate; so
that the monitoring officers can pick a meal at random (from any of the plate). The removed sample is weighed
and tested for value and standard by the R.H.D field officers.
R.H.D, DEOs and the Head of schools work jointly on monitoring and evaluating the programme; Post test-
Only Control Group and small-scale evaluation surveys are conducted to evaluate the programme for both its
feeding and education components.
Monitoring and evaluation is the responsibility of both donor and R.H.D. Donor monitoring is effectiveness
based. This is done through a term-based report about the programme to the donor. R.H.D monitoring officers
are responsible for collecting quantitative and qualitative data from schools.
The needy schools to be supported are selected based on geographical location and one gender. Schools are
selected at random, with a minimum of two schools selected from each case except for the two cases where only
one school is presented.
Food stuffs distributed by R.H.D to schools follow a term-based menu cycle. The content of the meals served
are therefore valued at an average of 800-1000 calories, with a calcium content of 348.45 mg and an iron
content of 4.14 mg. R.H.D also look forward to introduce juices in addition to the stuffs; fortified with vitamins
A, C, and iron. The programme has a positive effect on the nutritional status of children.
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Proposed Programme Budget per school per term
The 12 schools feeding programme (per term) will therefore Cost: Ksh. 1,549.000 x12 = Ksh. 18,588,000
USD$: 223,951.81
On a yearly basis (3-Terms), the 12- schools feeding programme Grand Total Cost: Ksh. 55,764,000
USD$:671,855.43
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