Wawira Njiru, Founder and CEO of Food4Education, shared her journey in feeding school children in Kenya on the TED stage. She took the stage as part of The Audacious Project 2024’s cohort, housed at TED.
In her TED Talk, Wawira Njiru told the story of how a simple act of care, feeding 25 children in a makeshift kitchen, sparked a feeding program that is now delivering over 500,000 meals every day. Today, Food4Education is the backbone of Kenya’s school feeding infrastructure and a blueprint for countries across Africa investing in nutrition, education, and opportunity.
“School feeding isn’t charity; it’s strategy, it’s infrastructure,” said Njiru. “It’s how we nourish children, support farmers, strengthen education, and build systems that last. We’ve created a sustainable solution that shows Africa isn’t just solving its own challenges—we’re setting precedents the world can learn from.”
Food4Education combines government co-investment, parent contributions, and philanthropic force to power its operations. Its green kitchens run on clean energy and its meals are sourced from local smallholder farmers.
Wawira Njiru speaks at SESSION 4 at TED 2025: Humanity Reimagined. April 7-11, 2025, Vancouver, BC. Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED
“There’s no debate: school meals are among the most effective, scalable tools to strengthen food systems, linking education, nutrition, agriculture, and local economies,” said Shalom Ndiku, Director of Public Affairs at Food4Education. “At UNFSS+4, it was a proud moment for our whole team to see our work recognized as a flagship intervention in Kenya’s national report. It’s a testament to the collective effort driving sustainable, African-led school feeding systems.”
You can support Wawira Njiru’s work at Food4Education here food4education.org/donate and watch her TED Talk below