NAIROBI, Kenya – Kenyan social entrepreneur Wawira Njiru, the founder and CEO of Food4Education, has been named to the 2026 TIME100 Next, earning international recognition for her work tackling childhood hunger through school feeding.
Njiru was included in the Advocates and Changemakers category of the annual list, which recognises emerging leaders whose work is shaping communities and industries around the world. TIME unveiled the 2026 list on September 30, with Njiru becoming one of two Kenyans recognised this year.
Her recognition comes as Food4Education continues to expand a school-feeding model that began with just 25 children in Ruiru, Kiambu County, in 2012.
Today, the organisation says it serves more than 600,000 school meals every day across more than 1,500 schools in Kenya.
Njiru marked the recognition by reflecting on how far the organisation has come since its first kitchen.
“When I started Food4Education at 21, the ambition was simple: feed 25 children in my hometown so they could stay in school. There was no blueprint for what it could become.”
She added that the organisation now serves more than 660,000 school meals each day and has created more than 6,000 jobs.
“But what I am most proud of is what we are proving: that solutions designed and built in Africa can reach extraordinary scale, and that investing in our children is one of the most important investments we can make in the continent’s future.”
Njiru founded Food4Education in 2012 after returning her attention to the problem of hunger among Kenyan schoolchildren.
While studying in Australia, she organised a Kenyan-themed fundraising dinner that raised about Sh126,000. She used the money to establish a school-feeding programme in Ruiru, where the first kitchen prepared meals for 25 children.
Four years later, the organisation built its first central kitchen with the capacity to feed 10,000 children. It launched its Tap2Eat system in 2019 and opened what it describes as Africa’s largest school-feeding kitchen, the Giga Kitchen, in 2023.
The organisation now combines centralised food production, technology, local procurement and school distribution to deliver meals at scale.
TIME’s profile of Njiru highlighted the logistics behind the programme, which involves employees, kitchens, farmers, technology and distribution networks working together to deliver more than 600,000 meals daily.
Comedian and former The Daily Show host Trevor Noah wrote Njiru’s TIME100 Next profile. He described her as someone who had applied her logistical abilities to “making sure children can eat,” while highlighting the scale of the operation.
Food4Education’s primary focus remains providing affordable, nutritious meals to children during the school day.
The organisation says its model is designed to help children stay in school and improve their ability to learn while also supporting families that might otherwise struggle to provide a daily school meal. Njiru has previously said the organisation’s impact extends beyond the classroom.
In a 2024 reflection on Food4Education’s growth, she said the organisation had seen first-hand how “hot, affordable, and nutritious meals” could increase attendance, enrolment and school performance.
The programme also connects school feeding with Kenya’s agricultural economy.
Food4Education says about 80 per cent of its food is sourced from local smallholder farmers, giving producers a regular market for their crops. The organisation also says its operations have created more than 6,000 jobs, with women and young people forming a significant part of its workforce.
Its Tap2Eat system uses NFC-enabled wristbands or cards to facilitate payments for meals, while the organisation uses its technology and centralised kitchens to coordinate procurement, cooking and distribution.
Njiru has increasingly framed school feeding as an economic issue rather than simply a charitable intervention.
“We have proven it is economic infrastructure,” she said while discussing Food4Education’s model.
The TIME100 Next recognition is not the first major international honour for Njiru or Food4Education. Food4Education itself appeared on TIME’s 2024 TIME100 Companies list, two years before Njiru’s individual recognition on TIME100 Next.
Njiru was also named the 2026 German Africa Prize laureate for her work linking school feeding with local food production, employment and economic development.
Food4Education has also set an ambitious target of feeding one million children every day by 2027. Its longer-term strategy aims to take the model beyond Kenya and support school-feeding systems in other African countries.
