The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is extending its existing partnership with the Novo Nordisk Foundation through a historic private-public sector collaboration that brings in the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Grundfos Foundation, to expand its home-grown school meals programme in Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda.
The partnership builds on WFP’s leading work on school meals globally to co-create a programme to deliver safe, nutritious, and locally sourced school meals, while also strengthening the climate resilience of smallholder farmers and promoting clean cooking solutions in schools. The partnership includes a strong focus on research and learning, leveraging expertise of the Novo Nordisk Foundation and the Grundfos Foundation.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Denmark Lars Løkke Rasmussen highlights the potential of such public-private partnerships: “More can be achieved when government, business and civil society join hands and find solutions together. It is a top priority for the Danish government to build stronger partnerships between public and private actors. This partnership is a great example of that aspiration. It will not only provide nutritious and healthy meals for school children and help improve food security, but also build resilience and generate employment in Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda.”
More than just a plate of food
Over the next three years, the initiative will reach 321,400 students in 375 schools across East Africa with nutritious home-grown meals. Around these schools, the partnership will build an ecosystem of support that ensures the long-term sustainability of the initiative. This includes establishing 1,300 school gardens, training 61,500 smallholder farmers in climate-smart food production and equipping schools with fuel-efficient cooking infrastructure.
“School meals are so much more than just a plate of food – they are transformational programmes that help vulnerable children to learn, communities to make a sustainable living and economies to grow and prosper,” explains Cindy McCain, Executive Director, UN World Food Programme.
“This pioneering partnership demonstrates how we can bring together expertise from the private and public sectors to create and fund innovative programmes that address the root causes of hunger and support long-term resilience against food insecurity.”
Schools as catalytic platforms
The partnership builds on an initial phase that ran from November 2022 to December 2024 in Rwanda and Uganda with an initial USD 4.1 million investment from the Novo Nordisk Foundation. The second phase expands on the effort to include schools in Kenya’s Turkana County and scale up coverage in Uganda and Rwanda. For this phase, the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the Grundfos Foundation and the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs have committed a total of USD 40 million in co-financing over a three-year period.
“By supporting homegrown school meal programmes, we are able to address both human and planetary health through the advancement of nutritious meals and clean cooking methods in schools coupled with climate-smart agriculture,” says Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen, CEO, Novo Nordisk Foundation.
”Schools hold great potential to be catalytic platforms for food systems transformation while improving the health and learning outcomes of children.”
A flagship initiative
The home-grown school meals programme is a flagship WFP initiative that addresses some of the most pressing challenges facing both people and the planet: food insecurity and sustainable agricultural practices. The linking of school meal programmes to local agriculture creates stable markets for smallholder farmers, helps to foster job creation—particularly for women—and supports the transition to climate-smart agricultural techniques.
It also supports the local governments’ national development agenda, aligning with broader momentum around the school meals in the region and globally through the School Meals Coalition, which WFP serves as the Secretariat.
About the United Nations World Food Programme
The United Nations World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organisation saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.
