Food4Education founder Wawira Njiru wins 2026 German Africa Prize
Kenyan nutritionist Wawira Njiru has been awarded the 2026 German Africa Prize for her work with Food4Education, an organization that integrates school feeding programs with local economic development. Her model utilizes digital platforms and local sourcing to provide millions of meals while supporting smallholder farmers.
Why it matters
The recognition highlights innovative, scalable solutions to food insecurity that simultaneously drive local economic growth and employment.
A photo collage of Kenyan nutritionist and Food4Education founder Wawira Njiru and the Giga Kitchen Cooks at Work/ HANDOUT Food4Education founder Wawira Njiru has been named the recipient of the German Africa Prize 2026 for her work linking school feeding with local food production, employment and economic development.
The German Africa Foundation said Njiru was being recognised for what it described as a model that treats school feeding as economic infrastructure rather than only a way of providing meals to children.
Njiru founded Food4Education (F4E) in 2012, initially providing meals to 25 schoolchildren.
The organisation now serves more than 660,000 children in over 1,900 schools across Kenya and has delivered more than 200 million meals, according to the foundation.
F4E's model combines family contributions, government funding and philanthropy to finance school meals, while its Tap2Eat digital platform allows families to contribute through wearable NFC wristbands or cards.
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