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In Kenya, more than 600,000 children line up for lunch each school day through Food4Education, the organization founded by Wawira Njiru. Each child wears a bright wristband that they tap to receive a hot meal. Since its founding, the nonprofit has served over 100 million meals to students in Kenya, but it began with a simple meal Njiru cooked herself for 80 people. When she was a 20-year-old international student studying in Australia, Njiru realized how small sums of money readily available in that country could make a significant difference back home in Kenya. She came up with the idea for a local fundraiser, cooking for 80 people. It failed as a meal. "I cooked all the food ... and it was not good food. No, it was burnt rice. ... cooking for 80 people is a lot," she recalled in an interview with Julia Boorstin for the latest episode of the "CNBC Changemakers and Power Players" podcast. But the concept worked. "People gave me $20 each. Raised $1,250 and started feeding 25 kids in my community. And that was the start of Food4Education," Njiru said. Njiru was featured on the 2025 CNBC Changemakers list. Today, what looks like a simple cashless payment represents much more. "When you give someone food, the first thing, and the first motivation that I have, is to give them dignity," she said. Njiru calls her approach "operationalizing dignity." From the kitchens to the payment systems, every element of Food4Education is built to ensure that no one feels like a charity case. "Our kids, our parents, we treat them like our customers," she said. "They're not beneficiaries, because they do contribute a subsidized amount, and they do have ownership." While parents may not be able to fully fund meals, Njiru realized early on they could use popular Kenyan mobile money platforms to top up small digital wallets for their children with whatever they could afford. Those accounts connect to the wristbands, which students scan at lunchtime. The program blends these parental contributions with governmental support and philanthropy. The system creates a sense of participation, she says, which allows families to feel that they are part of a community solution rather than passive recipients of aid. "The anchor of this financing system is a child. Everyone is participating to make sure that the child is able to eat, and by bringing in smart ways where the government can contribute, parents can contribute, and philanthropy can cover the gaps, we're really able to shift how school feeding happens," Njiru said. That sense of community extends to the local kitchens making the meals, which are part of what Njiru calls "an ecosystem of economic benefit," and includes a supplier named Mary who started with the nonprofit in 2012 supplying meals on a motorbike and now has a network of 65 trucks. "Empowering people like Mary is the bedrock of what Food4Education is about," she said. The majority of the staff who work with the organization are also parents of the children being served, "so when they're cooking the meals, when they're distributing the meals, they're serving their own communities, and there's so much pride that comes from that," Njiru said. "They're treated like heroes, because the people there know that these are the people who bring us food every single day. And I think that local ownership, that being from a place and serving a place is really, really critical," she added. Food4Education's use of technology is as much about psychology as its about logistics. The same digital tools that make payments simple also give her team data to manage kitchens more efficiently. "In all our kitchens, we have close to zero waste because of how we use technology," Njiru said, explaining that it can accurately gauge how many meals it will need on a daily basis. "By tapping [the wristband] we're able to know that a kid is in school today. And by looking at what the trends are, we're able to know are they likely to come to school tomorrow. So predictive analytics really helps us make sure that we're not cooking too much, we're not cooking too little, we're cooking precisely what we're supposed to be cooking. And that is a huge thing," she said. Hunger is a huge global problem, costing the global economy $3 trillion every year, according to Njiru, and with Africa losing an estimated 16.5% of GDP potential due to hunger. The payoff from Food4Education's mission can be seen directly in the attendance data. Njiru said when it becomes involved with a school, enrollment goes up by about 30%. "Kids are attending school more regularly, and then their performance goes up as a result. ... they're healthier, they're falling sick less often," she said. It's not just unlocking the potential of the child, she says, but unlocking the potential of the community, "from the farmers who are then able to supply to the people who get jobs in the kitchens, all these people are being dignified because of the existence of a school feeding program," she added. The goal ahead is "a massive, massive challenge," according to Njiru, citing an estimated 400 million children in Africa who need to be fed every day as part of schooling. But she says all it takes is a visit to one of Food4Education's 1,500 schools to stay grounded. "Whenever I go into our schools ... it makes me feel that I could do this every day. I could do this for no pay. I would do this any day for the rest of my life. That's what keeps me grounded, keeps me focused, and keeps me thinking, this is possible," she said. Follow and listen to this and every episode of the "CNBC Changemakers and Power Players" podcast on Apple and Spotify. CNBC is accepting nominations for the third CNBC Changemakers: Women Transforming Business list. The unranked list will recognize a distinguished group of women whose accomplishments have left a mark on the business world and who are paving a path forward.
