School Feeding Programme Evaluation FINAL

ACTION FOR CHILDREN IN CONFLICT
SCHOOL FEEDING PROGRAMME EVALUATION
Boy enjoys food provided by the AfCiC School Feeding Programme at St. Patrick’s Primary School
Report prepared by the AfCiC Monitoring and Evaluations Department:
Philip Wairire
Caroline Nyambura
Donovan McNiff
1|Page www.actionchildren.org
Acknowledgements
The Evaluation Team is very grateful for the generous cooperation and contribution received
from the beneficiaries of the School Feeding Programme (SFP) in St. Patrick’s Primary School,
Garissa Road Primary, and Karibaribi Primary School, and all other stakeholders who
participated in the one-on-one interviews and focus group discussions.
The Team is grateful as well to the AfCiC Management and staff for their moral and material
support provided during the evaluation process, which has resulted in this informative report.
Our special thanks go out to the research assistants for their efforts in administering the
evaluation tool and thereby reduced the time required to collect data from the respondents.
Table of Contents
Abbreviations and Acronyms ……………………………………………...4

Organizational Profile ……………………………………………………..5
Executive Summary ………………………………………………………..7
School Feeding Programme Evaluation Report
1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………...13
2. Data Analysis and Findings……………………………………………...15
2.1 Children Data and Responses ………………………………….15
2.2 Focus Group Discussion Responses……………………………30
2.3 Parent Responses……………………………………………….38
2.4 AfCiC Representative ………………………………………… 41
3. Recommendations ………………………………………………………42
4. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………....43
Abbreviations and Acronyms
AfCiC Action for Children in Conflict
NGO Non-governmental organization
SFP School Feeding Programme
GR Garissa Road Primary School
K Karibaribi Primary School
SP St. Patrick’s Primary School
F Female (Used in data tables/graphs)
M Male (Used in data tables/graphs)
USD United States Dollars
PPP Purchasing Power Parity
M&E Monitoring and Evaluations
SD Standard Deviation
STD Standard (Class level)
ACTION FOR CHILDREN IN CONFLICT PROFILE
Protecting street and other acutely vulnerable children in Thika since 2004
Action for Children in Conflict UK in Kenya is a registered non-governmental organisation that
has been in Thika since 2004 operating programmes aimed at preventing, supporting and
rehabilitating street and vulnerable children and their families.
Vision
A world of equal and sustainable opportunities for every child
Mission
To improve and sustain the holistic development of children, young people and their families by
facilitating access to justice, education, health and psychosocial and socio-economic support.
This involves empowering communities to participate in the provision of fair and sustainable
opportunities.
Aims
1. To provide comprehensive services to enable street children to sustainably return
to society
2. To enable vulnerable communities to support themselves so that they do not become
donor dependent
3. To build and maintain local networks to support vulnerable children, engaging all
relevant stakeholders in this mission, ensuring prompt, effective information sharing and
dialogue, and the utilisation of best practice templates to better assist the most vulnerable
AfCiC Values
 Honesty, Integrity, accountability and transparency
 Respect & Dignity
 Initiative & creativity
 Selflessness
 Kindness ,Sincerity, appreciation and trustworthiness
 Professionalism
 Hard work & efficiency
AfCiC Programmes
 Education Empowerment – a School Drop Out Prevention Project, working directly
with teachers in poor public primary schools to target those most at risk and meet their
needs whilst still in a schooling environment; Non Formal Education for out of school
youth; Child Play Therapy Sessions in Thika Women’s Prison and a Child Sponsorship
programme for former street children attending secondary schools and special schools.
 Economic Empowerment – Skills Training for older street youth, Family Sponsorship
and Livelihoods support for acutely vulnerable families and for those displaced by the
post-election violence.
 A residential street children’s Interim Care Centre for children who cannot immediately
rejoin their families; carrying out intensive non-formal education, rehabilitation,
counseling and family reintegration work. Kenyan Children’s Legal Aid Work
(KCLAW) providing free legal advice to children and guardians and advocating for
children’s rights and fair treatment.
 School Feeding programmes & Holiday Clubs in St Patrick’s Primary School,

Karibaribi and Garissa Road Primary School feeding over 1500 vulnerable children,
helping to keep them off the street and away from abuse and
 Children Lead the Way – Children Lead the Way [CLTW] is an innovative project
aimed at creating decent jobs for working boys and girls with special focus on children
affected by HIV/AIDS. The project seeks to address traditional gender stereotypes and
practices that hinder development. However, with all the good intentions the project is
being implemented in Thika and some neighbouring districts
 Civic Education – AfCiC has partnered with Amkeni Wakenya which is a UNDP-led
Facility whose mission is to provide support to civil society to facilitate citizens’
engagement in democratic governance and reforms. The partnership is geared “Towards
Free, Fair and Peaceful General Elections in 2013” with emphasis on facilitating active
and effective citizen participation.
Contact Details
Contact Name: John Muiruri, AfCiC Director
Contact Address: Action for Children in Conflict
PO BOX 6439-01000, Thika, Kenya
Website: www.actionchildren.org
Email: kenyadirector@actionchildren.org
Telephone: +254714038285/ +254737853891
Kenyan NGO Registration No.: OP.218/051/2002/0209/2436
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
AFCIC has now commissioned an evaluation exercise to establish the impact of the school
feeding programme and inform future planning and decision making processes targeted at
improving the programme. It is acknowledged that without periodic, objective reviews it would
be impossible to establish how effectively the programme has impacted on the beneficiaries and
hence impossible to establish trends and lessons learnt.
Evaluation:
The M&E department has been requested to conduct an evaluation of the school feeding
program, which has been running for about 4 years. The feeding program as has been already
stated in prior phases of this report was established to meet particular objectives. However, the
SFP has not in the past been subjected to any evaluation and it would be imprudent for AFCIC to
continue with implementation without establishing any impact of the program on the target
beneficiaries.
In addition, current practice in program implementation puts great emphasis on learning and
documentation of the learning so that future planning is directed by trends established from the
learning process. Information collected from monitoring and evaluation must be processed into
knowledge and be used to inform decision making for sustainability. Without this, it would be
impossible to sustain the program, even as important and integral as it might be.
There has, since the introduction of the feeding program, been significant learning and trend
changes noticed through implementation. For instance, it has been noted that in some schools,
the numbers of children benefitting from the program has fluctuated from time to time while in
some schools, only a particular number of children have benefited from the program. The reason
for fluctuations have been fronted as ranging from families being able to provide for their
children thereby withdrawing them from the program, thereby indicating that the number of
vulnerable children in some schools had reduced, to existence of a skewed selection process for
children eligible to benefit from the program. This is so because in most schools, teachers play
the role of selecting which children fall within the vulnerability bracket, and which then would
be eligible to benefit.
In setting out to plan and conduct the evaluation, the researchers hoped to establish concretely
the trends, lessons. Lessons and to affirm or dispute current positions held about the program.
During the exercise, beneficiaries had the opportunity to propose possible changes to the
program which they believe would enhance implementation and increase benefits from the
project.
The evaluation sought to answer the following questions:
1. How many children benefit from the feeding program

2. Whether the number of children benefitting fluctuates and reasons for the same,
3. What criteria is used to determine vulnerability (selection of beneficiaries),
4. Whether and how the program has influenced school attendance, exam performance and
in-class concentration,
5. Changes required,
The evaluation targeted various stakeholders in the program including:
1. Teachers – teacher responsible for the program, head teacher

2. Children – one on one interview, focus group discussion
3. Parents of children who benefit from the program
4. Cooks
5. AFCIC personnel responsible for the program: purpose for weekly monitoring visits,
whether any records exist of monitoring visits and observed trends
Proposed Methodology:
The evaluators conducted a pre-test of the one-on-one interview surveys for the head teachers,
teachers responsible for the feeding program, the cooks, and ten pupils at St. Patrick’s Primary
School to ensure clarity and efficacy of the interview guides. Any unclear, irrelevant or
inappropriate questions were redesigned or removed in preparation for administration.
The pre-test was run at 14:00 Friday, September 20th 2013 and intended to help the evaluators
estimate the amount of time required to conduct the official evaluation and to fine-tune the
evaluation tools. After analyzing the results of the pre-test, the evaluation tools were revised as
necessary.
Following the pre-test, the official evaluation was conducted; six research assistants and three
field officers administered the five types of questionnaires to the head teachers, the teachers
responsible for the school feeding program, the cooks, the pupils and the parents of beneficiary
pupils. The evaluation exercise took a total of two and a half days as estimated, beginning on
September 20th and continuing on September 23rd and 24th. At a 95% confidence level and 5%
standard error, 20% of enrolled school children (approximately 287 total children across the
three primary schools) served as a significant sample of the target population. The interviews
per school were split up as follows;
School Total No. of children Sample size

Karibaribi Primary 243 49
St. Patrick’s Primary 396 79
Garissa Road Primary 802 159
Teacher’s Interview
Head Teacher 3 3
Teacher resp for Program 3 3
Cook’s Interview
Cooks 3 3
AFCIC Representative
AFCIC Rep 1 1
Total Interviews 297
The exercise also targeted parents who were mobilized by the head teachers in each school but it
bears note however that the number of parents interviewed was not based on any scientific
sample due to the logistical difficulties it would have involved to assembly the requisite numbers
of parents. However, the number of parents interviewed will serve to, in the least, shed light on
what parents generally felt about the program and its benefits to the children.
Data Analysis:
Data collected from the evaluation exercise was analyzed using Microsoft excel software and
was manipulated in various ways to address different variables investigated in the research. This
enabled researches to arrive at different varying conclusions thereby shedding light on the
findings and providing diverse interpretations of the data.
A lot of information was provided by this data analysis as shall be demonstrated in later pages of
this report including feedback from children interviewed, teachers, cooks and parents
interviewed as well as AFCIC staff.
The research also made recommendations based on the findings on data analysis which
recommendations will hopefully highlight key areas for reform and or adjustments. The
recommendations may also provide for learning, which is currently a major aspect of effective
monitoring and evaluations.
Overview of Lessons:
Sample Distribution: How reliable is our [pupil] data?

Very reliable! First, we selected a sample size of 20% (287) of the aggregate at each institution,
which is statistically significant with a 95% confidence interval and 5% standard error.
Moreover, our overall gender distribution within the sample is nearly perfect (within half a
percentage point) for a randomized study: 142 female participants and 145 male participants.
Finally, even including the four outliers of K6 (9:4), SP7 (9:14), GR7 (22:10), GR8 (8:16), our
data inputs for class levels four through eight maintain a low standard deviation of 3.93,
otherwise expressed as 6.85% of the mean number of participants. This means the distribution
of total participants across class levels is bound within 1.63 standard deviations of the mean
(57.4). Based on these facts, we consider the data collected from respondents to our pupil
questionnaire to maintain the highest standards of statistical significance and reliability.
Participation in the School Feeding Programme:

From the findings of the research, 92.2% of beneficiary respondents participate in the
programme 5 days a week. This is a significantly high number considering that it was thought
that a lot of children, especially in schools such as St. Patrick’s do not participate in the SFP. In
fact, as shall be demonstrated later, in that particular school, all children surveyed participate in
the program!
In the teachers/Cooks interviews, 100% was achieved of those involved, literally perfect [sample
= aggregate]. However, teachers’ responses were often not matching each other or children’s
responses and some were speculative. It was realized that monitoring/recording or
documentation is a major issue.
Parents: spuriousness, potential confounding variables – income, responsibility, sample size, etc.
As mentioned earlier, the sample size for parents interviewed was not scientific; thus,
information collected would only be valuable for provision of speculative data rather than
scientifically reliable data.
Residence:
In terms of where respondents reside, it bears note that 53.31% of total respondents reside in
Kiandutu and of those who reside in Kiandutu, nearly 80% (76.73%) attend Garissa Road, which
speaks to the high levels of poverty and vulnerability for these children Also, no children
attending Karibaribi reside in Kiandutu. However, 81.63% of children attending Karibaribi
reside within coffee growing plantation where their parents work. This too is indicative of their
parents’ economic situations.
Benefits:
Children at St. Patrick’s and Karibaribi were significantly more likely to associate academic
benefits (attendance, academic performance, concentration on her coursework) with the feeding
programme than Garissa Road respondents. This is supported by a large standard deviation
between St. Patrick’s and Karibaribi respondents versus Garissa Road respondents. The vast
majority of students commented that they received multiple benefits from the school feeding
programme and over 98% of all respondents indicated that they benefited from the programme in
some way. Male and female responses extremely closely aligned across all benefits.
Attendance without the Feeding Programme

Overall, a substantial amount of children, over one third, admitted they would not attend school
without the influence of the school feeding programme. However, these numbers were
10 | P a g e www.actionchildren.org
considerably smaller at Garissa Road. Across the board, boys are less likely to attend school
without the feeding programme than girls.
Nearly 88% of respondents who would not attend school without the feeding programme further
indicated they would either beg on the streets or engage in child labour. Boys were 12% more
likely than girls to engage in either of these activities over staying at home. Girls were 50%
likely to stay home and assist with house chores (12% vs. 8%). Boys were more than three times
as likely to beg on streets (43% vs. 12%). However, girls were 43% more likely to engage in
child labour than boys (70% vs. 49%)
Portions:
Overall, 85.7% of students responded that the portions were [generally] sufficient.
Approximately 96% of respondents at Karibaribi (both genders) felt the portions served through
the feeding programme were consistent. However, more than 10% of respondents at St.
Patrick’s and Garissa Road found the portions inconsistent, which can most likely be attributed
to the lack of monitoring framework in these schools. Additionally, 24% of children at St.
Patrick’s (26.19% of males and 21.62% of female respondents) and 12.58% (13.75% of females
and 11.4% of males) of children at Garissa Road felt the portions were consistently insufficient.
Food Quality:
Across the schools and genders, respondents ranked freshness, nutrition and taste higher than
portion size. Yet approximately one third of respondents expressed dissatisfaction with the
quality of food in some form or another in the free-response recommendations section of the
questionnaires. At Karibaribi, 100% of students felt the freshness and taste were sufficient or
better and all but one [female] student felt the nutrition level was sufficient or better. However,
8-12% of male respondents at Karibaribi sought improvements in food quality, nutrition and/or
portion size in the free-response recommendations section. In general, male respondents were
approximately twice as likely to express discontent regarding portion size over taste or
nutritional value and more than six times as likely to express discontent regarding portion size
over freshness. Female pupils responded similarly in terms of portion size, but cited discontent
with freshness more than twice as often as male respondents. Female respondents were also 32%
and 40% more likely to express discontent with taste and nutritional value (respectively) than
their male counterparts.
Recommendations:
This was a vital component of the interview. It gave respondents the chance to give their views
on improving the program. Recommendations fell into eight categories:
a) quality of cooking (preference for frying, removing stones/stray objects, adding

sugar/salt),
b) nutrition (adding fruits and vegetables, using liquid cooking oils to decrease cholesterol,
adding “nutrients”),
c) variety
d) individual quantity (portion size),
e) overall quantity (more total food/expanding the programme),
f) cost (reduce/eliminate),
g) demeanor of cooks (rare),
h) A few of the respondents gave no responses/suggestions for improving the SFP but urged
that it be maintained anyway.
There were some high priority areas as per the responses and these are enumerated hereunder;
 Variety (72%), Quality (33%), Nutrition (23%), Portion Size (15%)
As well as low priority areas as per the responses and these are enumerated hereunder;
 Low Priority Recs: None (9%), Total Quantity/Program Expansion (6%),

Reduce/Eliminate Cost (2%), Cooks Demeanor (literally one girl – 0.35%)
The major exception to this categorization was St. Patrick’s where 19% of pupils recommend
expansion of the feeding program or total quantity of food. Nearly three quarters of children
overall desired variety in their foods. At Karibaribi, a significant minority, 44.9% of respondents
urged AfCiC to introduce softer foods for children in nursery through class 3 as the maize in
githeri proves too difficult for them to chew. Approximately a third of respondents expressed
dissatisfaction with the quality of food. Excluding one outlier, there was minimal variance
between female and male respondents. The data presented a moderately strong negative
correlation between student population and quality of food prepared.
1. INTRODUCTION
Action for Children in Conflict (AFCIC) is a Non-governmental Organization (N.G.O) registered

under the NGOs Regulation Act. It started working in Thika in 2004, prompted by the need to
alleviate the situation of vulnerable children, their families and their communities, to enable
children to attain the highest standards of life, enable them to realize their full potential and
provide them access to opportunities accessible to other children from more privileged
circumstances.
At inception, AFCIC concentrated mainly on rehabilitation of street children, with a focus on

rescue, rehabilitation, re-socialization and reintegration approach, which aimed at providing
wholesome interventions for street children. However, during implementation, it became more
and more apparent that most children living on the streets found themselves in those situations
due to the inability of their families and other caregivers to provide the most basic of needs for
these children, such as food! This meant that while AFCIC and many other partners worked hard
to ensure children rescued from the streets were reintegrated back to their families, they would
soon after return to the streets majorly because some of their families could not afford to feed
them. Such children would be on the streets begging for food or some of them would be found
engaging in child labour to raise enough money for food.
As will be illustrated in later stages of this report, children themselves indeed report that were it
not for initiatives such as school feeding programmes, many of them would be forced to go to the
streets in search of food.
Thus, during implementation of the street children rescue and rehabilitation program, it was
realized that without incorporating interventions aimed at empowering families to sustain their
children and creating environments within schools, which would enable children to stay in
school, it would be unsustainable to merely work at reducing street children numbers. Hence,
AFCIC had to innovatively strategize on ways to holistically respond to the issues of acutely
vulnerable children. This gave rise to a number of programs within AFCIC to support the street
children rehabilitation program, a main one of which became the school feeding program (SFP).
In this regard therefore, AFCIC has been partnering with three schools within Thika
municipality, that is; St. Patrick’s Primary school, Garissa road primary school and Karibaribi
primary school for the implementation of the school feeding programme.
The justification for selection of these schools is that they all fall within the most impoverished
communities in Thika, or are attended by children coming from these impoverished communities
and who would most at risk of going into the streets for lack of food. Through programming
experience, it has been noted that within Thika, most children ending up on the streets come
from Kiandutu slums and its environs or from the coffee growing areas such as Karibaribi. Most
parents of children attending these schools and living within the identified areas are casual
workers within coffee plantations or are casual laborers within industries in Thika or are engaged
in diverse low income activities which make it acutely difficult to have a predictable economic
outlay. The school feeding program therefore, other than being implemented to supplement
government efforts on enhancement of universal free primary education, was also intended to
provide nutritional supplement for these children.
Since 2003, the government had introduced universal free primary education which was open to
all children attending public primary schools. The expectation would have therefore been that all
children would be able to attend and stay in school. However, as evidenced in this particular
situation, this was a mere assumption as many other factors came into play and there was no
guarantee that children not required not to pay any school fees would automatically end up in
school. Again, experience has shown that issues such as availability of food either at home or in
school plays a big role in determining whether children would stay in school.
In addition, many children who attended school despite that lack of food would still perform very
poorly since they could not concentrate or effectively participate in class on empty stomachs.
The gnawing hunger would make sure their concentration levels were at a minimum. This would
inevitably lead to poor performance in class and low grades, ultimately ensuring that these
children would achieve little in their national exams, further reducing their chances at positions
in quality secondary schools. Eventually, their broken spirits would result in desperation and
their getting sucked into cycles of poverty and destitution even for their own children. Seemingly
simple interventions such as the SFP are designed and intended to break these cycles and give
vulnerable children a chance at a better life.
It is for these reasons that AFCIC embarked on a robust school feeding program targeting the
stated schools with a view to accomplish a number of goals, most specifically;
 To address hunger, the primary cause that lead children to the street
 To effectively reduce and eventually eliminate the number of street children in Thika
 To reduce school drop out rates at three vulnerable primary schools
 To improve concentration and academic performance in poor primary schools
 To improve access to “free primary education” in Thika for the most vulnerable children
2. DATA ANALYSIS & FINDINGS
2.1 Children Data and Responses:
2.1.1 Reliability of Data:
The researchers who conducted the AfCiC School Feeding Programme Evaluation consider the
data collected from respondents to the pupil questionnaire to be highly reliable and statistically
relevant. First, the researchers selected a sample size of 20% (287 total participants) of the
aggregate at each institution, which is statistically relevant and reliable at a 95% confidence
interval with a 5% standard error. Moreover, the overall gender distribution within the sample is
nearly ideal for a randomized study, within half a percentage point of equal representation: 142
female participants and 145 male participants. For a school-by-school break down of the gender
ratios within each class level, please consult the table below. Note: “[%]LOC” refers to the
percentage of respondents at a given location or primary school that match the relevant criteria.
For example, the cell intersecting at (X, Y) values [%]LOC, Karibaribi (F) represents the number
of female respondents at Karibaribi expressed as a percentage of the total number of respondents
at Karibaribi for that category: children. Additionally, for formatting purposes, F = Female, M =
Male, and T = Total in the case of the data table immediately below and for all other incidences
throughout this report.
8 [%]8 7 [%]7 6 [%]6 5 [%]5 4 [%]4 T [%]LOC [%]TOTAL

Karibaribi (F) 4 7.84% 3 4.84% 9 16.07% 2 3.28% 7 12.28% 25 51.02% 8.71%
Karibaribi (M) 3 5.88% 4 6.45% 4 7.14% 3 4.92% 10 17.54% 24 48.98% 8.36%
Karibaribi (T) 7 14.29% 7 14.29% 13 26.53% 5 10.20% 17 34.69% 49 100.00% 17.07%
St. Patrick's (F) 9 17.65% 9 14.52% 5 8.93% 11 18.03% 3 5.26% 37 46.84% 12.89%
St. Patrick's (M) 11 21.57% 14 22.58% 5 8.93% 8 13.11% 4 7.02% 42 53.16% 14.63%
St. Patrick's (T) 20 25.32% 23 29.11% 10 12.66% 19 24.05% 7 8.86% 79 100.00% 27.53%
Garissa Road (F) 8 15.69% 22 35.48% 17 30.36% 18 29.51% 15 26.32% 80 50.31% 27.87%
Garissa Road (M) 16 31.37% 10 16.13% 16 28.57% 19 31.15% 18 31.58% 79 49.69% 27.53%
Garissa Road (T) 24 15.09% 32 20.13% 33 20.75% 37 23.27% 33 20.75% 159 100.00% 55.40%
Total (F) 21 41.18% 34 54.84% 31 55.36% 31 50.82% 25 43.86% 142 49.48% 49.48%
Total (M) 30 58.82% 28 45.16% 25 44.64% 30 49.18% 32 56.14% 145 50.52% 50.52%
GRAND TOTAL 51 100.00% 62 100.00% 56 100.00% 61 100.00% 57 100.00% 287 100.00% 100.00%
Admittedly, the data spread includes four significant outliers for female to male ratios in the
context of a specific class level and primary school. These four outliers are Karibaribi Standard
6, St. Patrick’s Standard 7, Garissa Road Standard 7, and Garissa Road Standard 8, which bore
female to male rations of 9:4, 9:14, 22:10, and 8:16 (respectively). Despite these outliers, our
data inputs for class levels four through eight maintain a low standard deviation of 3.93,
otherwise expressed as 6.85% of the mean number of participants per class level or 1.37% of the
total sample population. This means the distribution of total participants across class levels is
bound within 1.63 standard deviations of the mean (57.4); lower deviation between numbers of
respondents per class level implies greater reliability when comparing and contrasting across
these data ranges. Additionally, research assistants employed a combination of English,
Kiswahili and Kikuyu – the predominant ethnic language of the Central Province – to overcome
any potential language barriers encountered when administering the evaluation tools. Based on
these facts, the researchers consider the data collected from respondents to our pupil
questionnaire to maintain high standards of statistical significance and reliability.
In terms of sample size, evaluations tools administered to the teachers and cooks achieved
statistical perfection as the researchers questioned 100% of people involved in those two
capacities. Infrequently, this required the researchers to modify their proposed methodology in
the field. For example, whereas at St. Patrick’s and Garissa Road primaries, only one Head
Teacher and one additional instructor were responsible for the feeding programme, Karibaribi
divided the feeding programme management responsibilities between six teachers in addition to
the Head Teacher. In this case, the researcher responsible for collecting instructor responses
adopted a focus group discussion approach in order to promote efficiency, inclusivity and data
reliability – as this approach neutralized the necessity to compare and reconcile divergent
responses ex post facto. Nevertheless, with the exception of Karibaribi, responses to the
instructor evaluation tool varied greatly in terms of total number of participants, changes in
attendance rates and exam scores, and to a lesser extent, recommendations for improving the
programme. Also, teachers at St. Patrick’s and Garissa Road were unaware when AfCiC began
implementation of the school feeding programme. At Garissa Road, educators estimated the
programme was initiated in 2011, several years after the actual start date, while the Head
Teacher at St. Patrick’s suggested AfCiC has been responsible for the feeding programme for 10
years, which is equally inaccurate.
Similarly, responses from teachers and cooks at St. Patrick’s and Garissa Road regarding the
total or average number of pupils fed daily differed greatly, especially at the latter institution.
Responses provided by the cooks at these two cooks indicate a lack of accurate and reliable
information regarding the number of children fed daily at these two schools. At St. Patrick’s, the
cook provided a minimum number of students (200) and could only report that the daily number
was above that minimum value. The same phenomenon presented at Garissa Road, where the
cook estimated the daily number of children fed to be approximately 1,000, which is
approximately 25% more than the total number of children attending the school (802), 39% more
than the number provided by the Head Teacher (702), and more than twice the average supplied
by the teacher responsible for the school feeding programme at Garissa Road (475). Combined,
these discrepancies demonstrate a clear need for a reliable and standardized monitoring
framework at both St. Patrick’s and Garissa Road that accurately records the number, and
ideally, the names and class levels, of all the children who feed at these two schools on a given
day. To increase efficiency and reduce the amount of micro-management this would require, the
monitoring framework could be as simple as an attendance roster with the names and class levels
of all pupils attending the school, with daily checkboxes for school feeding programme
participation. At the end of a given week, the records could be filed and reprinted for the
following week. This standardized monitoring framework is critical for accurate and up-to-date
monitoring of the school feeding programme, which will inform programmatic improvements
and bring the school feeding programme more in line with our academic and health-related
outcome indicators. Given these discrepancies, data collected from the cook and teacher
questionnaires will be included in the report in a qualitative and supportive role, and only in so
far as these responses relate to data from the pupil questionnaires. In so doing, the research team
hopes to emphasize data collected from the primary beneficiaries and minimize reader confusion.
In contrast to results from the evaluation tools for pupils, teachers, and cooks, the parent
questionnaire data cannot be considered scientifically or statistically reliable or significant for
several reasons. First and foremost, the available sampling was too not randomly selected and
was too small in relation to the aggregate population to be considered statistically significant.
Only 16 parent questionnaires were administered as only that many parents were available at St.
Patrick’s and Karibaribi to respond to the evaluation tools. At Garissa Road, no parents were
interviewed. As the majority of pupils who benefit from the school feeding programme attend
Garissa Road, the data is incomplete. Furthermore, the timing and administration of the
evaluation tools, as well as the available sample, allowed for multiple confounding variables and
dramatically increased spuriousness in this data set. The parents who were questioned had been
called to St. Patrick’s and Karibaribi primarily in order to meet with the educators. As a result,
the data may be skewed towards parents more likely to attend parent-teacher meetings. In other
words, the parents available were most likely not parents to the most acutely vulnerable children,
the children who stand to reap the greatest benefit from participating in the school feeding
programme. Responsibility and higher income could be factors in this probability such that the
researchers must conclude the parents sample may not represent the spread of socio-economic
indicators present in an ideal sampling of the aggregate. Minute sample size further increases
spuriousness and decreases reliability of the parent data. Finally, although questioning parents
reflects the holistic, family-oriented approach of AfCiC programming, administering
questionnaires in this manner neglects orphaned children, one of the most acutely vulnerable
groups. To conclude, data collected from parent questionnaires should be considered incomplete
as it does not accurately reflect the opinions of parents from all three schools or the spread of
socio-economic indicators in the total parent population. Nevertheless, a brief section analyzing
data from the parent questionnaires has been included in this evaluation report in order to
provide greater detail and context for the reader, bearing in mind the above information related to
data spuriousness in this instance.
Garissa Road: Child
2.1.2 Residence:
Population by Residence
Children who attend Garissa Road, St.
1%3% 6%
Patrick’s and Karibaribi primary schools 7%
Athena
4%
reside in 26 different communities. The 2% Kiandutu
graphs to the right offer a breakdown of this
Kiang'ombe
residential distribution. The Miscellaneous
Kianjau
Other category refers to a conglomerate of
Kiganjo
residential areas in which only one child
from that particular school resides. A more Mukira
77%
detailed illustration of this distribution can Misc Other
be found on the following page.
In total, 53.31% of total child respondents a

across the three schools reside in Kiandutu. St. Patrick's: Child
Of those who reside in Kiandutu, nearly
80% attend Garissa Road. Similarly,
76.73% of respondents from Garissa Road Athena
6% 8%
reside in Kiandutu, which speaks to the high Kiandutu
levels of poverty and vulnerability for a 20% Kiganjo
substantial majority of these children. Majengo
4% 39% Makongeni
Kiandutu is an informal settlement or slum,
3%
considered the lowest income community in Pilot
5%
Thika. The settlement derives its name 10% 5% Starehe
from the Kikuyu term for the sand fleas that Weteithie
engender painful, easily-infected lesions, Misc Other
generally on the hands or feet of the host.
Low income, overcrowding, water
sanitation and lack of secure land tenure Karibaribi: Child
constitute some of the most pressing issues
facing inhabitants of Kiandutu.
Kiandutu can be subdivided into ten fairly 10% 8%
Egads
heterogeneous clusters, each displaying its
Karibaribi
own unique socio-economic and spatial 20% 27%
dynamics. Supporting the idea of these Kwa Muchiri
socio-economic strata, Philip Wairire, Lead Machure
Researcher and AfCiC M&E Officer, noted 4% Ngoingwa
that based on hygiene, clothing quality and 31% Misc Other
CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE
KARIBARIBI Incidence Percent mannerisms during interviews, children
Dallas 1 2.04% attending Garissa Road and residing in
Egads 4 8.16% Kiandutu were likely significantly more
Gatukuyu 1 2.04% vulnerable than Kiandutu children at St.
Karibaribi 13 26.53% Patrick’s.
Kwa Muchiri 2 4.08%
Machure 15 34.69% While more pupils at St. Patrick’s reside in
Ngoingwa 10 20.41% Kiandutu than any other location, and
Uzima Center 1 2.04% children from Kiandutu comprise the
Wabeni 1 2.04% majority of pupils at Garissa Road, no
Weteithie 1 2.04% respondents from Karibaribi indicated they
reside in Kiandutu. The research team
ST. PATRICK'S Incidence Percent believes the physical distance between
Athena 6 7.59% Kiandutu and Karibaribi functions as a
Biafra 1 1.27% deterrent in this matter. However, the data
Castle 1 1.27% demonstrates that this is not always the
Depot 1 1.27% case. For example, at St. Patrick’s,
Joy Town 1 1.27% slightly more than 20% of respondents
Kenyatanning 1 1.27% reside in Weteithie when there are
Kiandutu 31 39.24% certainly primary schools closer to that
Kiganjo 4 5.06% community than St. Patrick’s.
Majengo 8 10.13%
Makongeni 4 5.06% While no Karibaribi pupils reside in
Pilot 2 2.53% Kiandutu, the majority of them have
Starehe 3 3.80% parents working in the nearby coffee
Weteithie 16 20.25% plantations of Karibaribi and Machure.
Consequently, the research team is
GARISSA ROAD Incidence Percent inclined to classify the majority of
Athena 9 5.66% Karibaribi pupils (especially those whose
Castle 1 0.63% parents/guardians work in the plantations)
Kiandutu 122 76.73% as acutely vulnerable. According to the
Kiang'ombe 3 1.89% Karibaribi Head Teacher, coffee plantation
Kianjau 7 4.40% workers can expect to earn between 100
Kiganjo 11 6.92% and 150 Kenya shillings each day, an
Makongeni 1 0.63% income range that includes the updated
Molo 1 0.63% international poverty line of 1.25 USD
Mukira 2 1.26% PPP. Oftentimes, when coffee markets
Munene 1 0.63% perform poorly, plantation workers go
Pilot 1 0.63% unpaid.
2.1.3 Benefits:
The combined student population at the three beneficiary schools is equal to 1441 pupils, 802 of
whom attend Garissa Road, 396 at St. Patrick’s, and 243 at Karibaribi. Given data provided by
instructors at each of these locations, the research team can guarantee the school feeding
programme reaches and benefits nearly 1200 children every day. However, the data suggests
this number to be even higher. Given the representative sample and proportion of respondents
who benefit from the school feeding programme, we can say with 95% confidence that between
1240 and 1371 pupils benefit from the school feeding programme every single day.
The impetus behind asking children about the benefits of the feeding programme lays in
comparing their responses with four core indicators to assess the impact of the school feeding
programme through the perspective of its primary beneficiaries. Those four core indicators were
school attendance, academic performance, concentration on coursework, and health, the latter of
which encompassed mental and emotional as well as physical health. Of the 287 random child
respondents, 282 indicated they participate in the school feeding programme on some level and
92.2% of those beneficiary respondents participate in the programme five days a week. All
beneficiary respondents (98.26% of total respondents) indicated that they benefited from the
feeding programme in some way. Equally promising, 80.84% of respondents commented that
they received multiple benefits from the feeding programme.
Benefits (Gendered Comp.)

90.00%
80.00%
70.00%
60.00%
50.00%
40.00% Female
30.00%
20.00% Male
10.00%
0.00%
The gendered comparison of feeding programme benefits (pictured above) illustrates how
closely aligned male and female responses were for this variable. The greatest divergence
occurred at academic performance, which 4.62% more male respondents associated with the
feeding programme than female respondents. However, a standard deviation of 2.14% across
responses for this variable indicates that male and female responses regarding the perceived
benefits of the school feeding programme were virtually identical. Please note: this has been
pictorially represented by the thin, black maximum-minimum lines between the female and male
values for each response category. Additionally, “Money” and “Time” are represented as
categories in the gendered comparison graph for benefits while not explicitly included in the
multiple choice response section for this question. However, respondents who ticked “Other”
invariably included a response that either belonged in one of the four core categories or pertained
to either money or time. As the graph demonstrates, this accounts for only a minute portion of
the population (less than 5%).
Due to the extremely close alignment between male and female responses for this category, we
can compare core benefit responses across the three schools without having to account for
spuriousness due to gender. The core benefits graph (pictured below) delineates this
comparison. As can be seen in this graph, Children at St. Patrick’s and Karibaribi were
significantly more likely to associate academic benefits (attendance, academic performance,
concentration on coursework) with the feeding programme than Garissa Road respondents.
Respondents from St. Patrick’s and Karibaribi were (respectively) 80% and 50% more likely to
attribute improved attendance rates with the feeding programme than pupils at Garissa Road.
Similarly, children at St. Patrick’s and Karibaribi were approximately 50% more likely to
associate an improved ability to concentrate on coursework with the feeding programme.
Moreover, St. Patrick’s and Karibaribi pupils were each more than twice as likely to indicate
improvements in academic performance as a result of the feeding programme than their Garissa
Road counterparts. Across academic core benefits, the standard deviation between the closely-
aligned St. Patrick’s and Karibaribi respondents and the Garissa Road respondents highlights this
trend: 32.45%. This SD is more than 15 times that of the SD for the gendered comparison and is
again represented by the thin, black maximum-minimum lines).
Core Benefits
100.00%
90.00%
80.00%
70.00%
60.00%
50.00%
Garissa Road
40.00%
30.00% St. Patrick's
20.00%
Karibaribi
10.00%
0.00%
2.1.4 Attendance:
When designing the

evaluation tool for pupils, the
research team arrived at the
Attendance Sans Feeding
100.00%
conclusion that not all Programme
students would be able to
reliably report their exam 50.00%
scores over every year of

having participated in the 0.00%
feeding programme. Also,
since some children do not
Regular
benefit at both Garissa Road Irregular
None
and St. Patrick’s, relying on
None Irregular Regular
the exam result data for either
Karibaribi 16.33% 32.65% 51.02%
of the entire schools would
St. Patrick's 20.25% 27.85% 51.90%
not accurately represent the
Garissa Road 3.77% 7.55% 88.68%
change in academic
performance for beneficiary
students alone and would not allow us to parse the data to compare genders and class levels.
Furthermore, concentration on coursework can best be represented by exam scores, which reflect
academic performance, and health is a circumstantial outcome indicator. Otherwise expressed,
three of our four core outcome indicators for impact evaluation were statistically inappropriate to
ask the children. In order to counteract this, the research team elected to ask pupils how the
feeding programme impacts attendance and lifestyle – specifically, what activities pupils would
engage in if not attending school as a result of [hypothetical] feeding programme
discontinuation.
Continuing the strong correlation between the school feeding programme and improvement
across academic outcome indicators, 48.1% of children at St. Patrick’s and 48.98% of children at
Karibaribi responded that they would not regularly attend school without the feeding
programme. In contrast, 88.68% of children at Garissa Road (86% of boys and 91% of girls) say
they would still attend school. This means only 11% of children in class levels four through
eight at Garissa Road responded by saying they would not regularly attend school without the
feeding programme. It is unclear whether this is a function of the Head Teacher threatening
punishments for truancy, the demographic composition of the pupils, or some disconnect
between programme design and implementation with a partner organization. However, it is clear
that pupils at Garissa Road consistently feel they receive significantly less academic benefit from
the feeding programme than pupils at either St. Patrick’s or Karibaribi.
None Irregular Regular Total None Irregular Regular Total
KARIBARIBI (Female) (Female) (Female) (Female) (Male) (Male) (Male) (Male)
STD 8 0 4 0 4 1 2 0 3
STD 7 1 1 1 3 0 4 0 4
STD 6 1 1 7 9 0 3 1 4
STD 5 1 0 1 2 2 0 1 3
STD 4 1 0 6 7 1 1 8 10
Total 4 6 15 25 4 10 10 24
Percent 16.00% 24.00% 60.00% 100.00% 16.67% 41.67% 41.67% 100.00%
ST. PATRICK'S
STD 8 2 4 3 9 3 3 5 11
STD 7 2 3 4 9 6 2 6 14
STD 6 0 2 3 5 1 3 1 5
STD 5 1 3 7 11 1 1 6 8
STD 4 0 0 3 3 0 1 3 4
Total 5 12 20 37 11 10 21 42
Percent 13.51% 32.43% 54.05% 100.00% 26.19% 23.81% 50.00% 100.00%
GARISSA ROAD
STD 8 0 0 8 8 0 1 15 16
STD 7 0 1 21 22 1 1 8 10
STD 6 0 1 16 17 1 2 13 16
STD 5 2 2 14 18 1 2 16 19
STD 4 1 0 14 15 0 2 16 18
Total 3 4 73 80 3 8 68 79
Percent 3.75% 5.00% 91.25% 100.00% 3.80% 10.13% 86.07% 100.00%
TOTAL
STD 8 2 8 11 21 4 6 20 30
STD 7 3 5 26 34 7 7 14 28
STD 6 1 4 26 31 2 8 15 25
STD 5 4 5 22 31 4 3 23 30
STD 4 2 0 23 25 1 4 27 32
Total 12 22 108 142 18 28 99 145
Percent (Gender) 8.45% 15.49% 76.06% 100.00% 12.41% 19.31% 68.28% 100.00%
Percent (Total) 4.18% 7.67% 37.63% 49.48% 6.27% 9.76% 34.49% 50.52%
For purposes of the data table above, percentages should be interpreted as the response incidence
versus the total quantity of respondents within the context of the given gender and school. For
example, looking at Karibaribi, 16% refers to the portion of females from standard four through
standard eight who would no longer attend without the feeding program. The categories “None,”
“Irregular,” and “Regular” refer to attendance levels without the feeding program.
In terms of a gendered comparison, across the board, boys are less likely to attend school without
the FP than girls (girls are 50% more likely to attend school without the school feeding
programme). The data table on the following page further details this trend by offering a
gendered comparison of attendance without the school feeding programme across class levels
and schools.
The graph pictured below describes the relationship between the school feeding programme and
non-educational activities; please note, the diagram only includes pupils who responded that they
would stop attending regularly without the feeding programme. As discussed previously, that
number equates to approximately half of the pupils at St. Patrick’s and Karibaribi, and includes a
significantly smaller portion of children at Garissa Road. Of those who would not attend
regularly without the school feeding programme, 88% of respondents indicated they would either
beg on the streets or engage in child labour. Further deconstructed, 58% suggested they would
engage in child labour and 30% would beg on the street.
“The AfCiC School Feeding Programme protects between

381 and 423 children from being forced to beg on the
streets of Thika or engage in child labour every single day.”
Based on the number of children who responded that they would not attend school without the
feeding programme and the responses to how many pupils would be begging on the streets or
engaging in child labour, the research team is able to extrapolate from the data to the total
population and determine the number of children AfCiC protects from such a fate each day.
Given the aforementioned calculation and our 5% standard error, we can claim with 95%
confidence that the AfCiC School Feeding Programme protects between 381 and 422 children
from being forced to beg on the streets of Thika or engage in child labour every single day. In
reality, it is probable that this number is greater due to the nature or the evaluation tool. The
estimated numbers of children who would be engaging in child labour or street begging are
based on the amount of children who admitted to complete strangers (research assistants) that
they would not attend school without the feeding programme. Furthermore, while only 11% of
pupils at Garissa Road responded that they
would not attend regularly without the feeding Child Activity Sans
programme, the instructors cited reoccurring Feeding Programme
precedent to the contrary. Every first week of
term, classes are not held in the afternoon as no
pupils are present to be taught; ere go, the vast
majority of pupils at Garissa Road would also 58%
10% 88%
stop attending regularly if the feeding
programme did not exist. This means the 2% 30%
number of children prevented from street
begging or engaging in child labour is actually
considerably higher, perhaps even double the Declined to State Staying at Home
figure displayed in the quotation above. Child Labour Street Begging
Pupils residing in Kiandutu were 20% more likely to engage in street begging, but were
somewhat less likely to engage in child labour and slightly more likely to continue to regularly
attend school even without the feeding program. However, because these differences in
attendance and probability to engage in child labour were so minor, they cannot confidently be
attributed to pure geographic or socio-economic factors.
The diagrams below provide a gendered comparison of the information in the graph on the
previous page, what activities children would participate in rather than attending school for those
who responded they would not attend without the feeding programme. All responses to this free-
response question invariably fell within four categories: “Declined to State,” “Staying at Home,”
“Child Labour,” and “Street Begging.” Declined to State accounted for less than 3% of the total
responses. It is unclear whether these responses occurred because the respondent felt
uncomfortable with the question, or whether the nature of the respondent’s activity without the
feeding programme was sensitive, or whether this is a function of implementation error in which
volunteer research assistants failed to probe respondents for clear and honest answers. In any
case, only female respondents’ answers fell within the Declined to State category.
Boys were 12% more likely than girls to do one

Male Activity Sans of these activities over staying home, whereas
Feeding Programme girls were 50% likely than boys to stay home
0% 8% and assist with house chores. Male respondents
Declined to State
43% were also more than three times as likely to beg
Staying at Home
49%
on streets as their female counterparts.
Child Labour However, girls were 43% more likely to engage
Street Begging in child labour than boys. This data confirms
results and trends from previous AfCiC Female Activity Sans

studies, which contend that male youth are at Feeding Programme
greater risk to end up street begging and 6% 12%
12% Declined to State
female youth are more likely to engage in
casual domestic work, including household Staying at Home
chores and labour to sustain their families, or 70% Child Labour

engaging in private study. Street Begging
Both data and precedent strongly indicate the

feeding programme ensures dramatic increases in attendance. However, despite assertions by
children that the feeding programme improves concentration and performance, fluctuations in
exam scores (under the current system) cannot reliably or statistically linked to the feeding
programme. The feeding programme succeeds in increasing attendance, but this should be
viewed as an opportunity for educators to exploit to ensure that children attend school not only to
eat, but also to receive quality education and learn.
2.1.5 Food Quantity & Quality:
Overall, 85.7% of students responded Karibaribi St. Patrick's Garissa Total

that the portions were [generally] Portion (F) 2.04 1.86 1.92 1.90
sufficient. Approximately 95% of Portion (M) 2.17 1.83 1.98 2.00
respondents at Karibaribi (both Portion (T) 2.10 1.85 1.95 1.95
genders) felt the portions served Freshness (F) 2.68 2.54 2.43 2.30
through the feeding programme were Freshness (M) 2.63 2.67 2.64 2.63
consistent. However, 12.58% of Freshness (T) 2.65 2.61 2.54 2.47
respondents at Garissa Road and Taste (F) 2.56 2.35 2.29 2.18
Taste (M) 2.63 2.26 2.34 2.30
11.39% of respondents at St. Patrick’s
Taste (T) 2.59 2.30 2.32 2.24
expressed discontent, that the portions
Nutrition (F) 2.36 2.14 2.19 2.16
were inconsistent so they could not be
Nutrition (M) 2.50 2.31 2.34 2.30
sure whether a meal through the
Nutrition (T) 2.43 2.23 2.26 2.23
feeding programme would satisfy
them on a given day. Both female and male respondents felt similarly on this issue at St.
Patrick’s and Garissa Road, though the limited total population size and therefore limited sample
size at Karibaribi could have skewed the data to suggest female respondents were significantly
more likely to cite inconsistency with the portion size. In reality, this meant zero boys and three
girls from our sample of 49 at Karibaribi identified an issue with portion consistency. The
research team has deduced that the reason St. Patrick’s and Garissa Road are marked by such
high rates of inconsistency (more than twice that of Karibaribi in either case) is due to the
precipitating issue of failing to keep adequate, reliable, standardized, daily records. Karibaribi
succeeds in this, partially because all students benefit from the school feeding programme there,
but with numerous positive results, including identifying how much food will be required on a
given school day.
Additionally, 24% of children at St.

Portion Discontent Patrick’s (26.19% of male
(Gendered Comp.) respondents and 21.62% of female
Karibaribi
respondents) and 12.58% of
St. Patrick's children at Garissa Road (13.75%
Garissa Road of females and 11.4% of males) felt
0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00%
the portions were consistently
insufficient. The gendered
Garissa Road St. Patrick's Karibaribi
comparison of portion size
Male 10.13% 26.19% 0.00%
discontent across the three schools
Female 8.75% 21.62% 12.00%
(pictured left) demonstrates how
male and female respondents felt
similarly on this issue at both St. Patrick’s and Garissa Road. More importantly, however, it also
demonstrates that St. Patrick’s boasts significantly higher rates of discontent with portion size.
St. Patrick’s receives the same amount by mass of cooking ingredients as Karibaribi when St.
Patrick’s has 396 pupils, the vast majority of whom benefit from the feeding programme without
being on an official list (intended to cater first and foremost to the most acutely vulnerable
children), and Karibaribi has only 243 pupils.
Across the schools and genders, respondents ranked freshness, nutrition and taste higher than
portion size: 96.45% of students indicated freshness was sufficient or better; 93.26% of
respondents indicated that nutrition was sufficient or better; 91.84% of respondents indicated that
taste was sufficient or better.
However, approximately one third of respondents expressed dissatisfaction with the quality of
food in some form or another in the free-response recommendations section of the
questionnaires.
At Karibaribi, 100% of
students felt the freshness
Food Quantity &
and taste were sufficient
Quality Discontent or better and all but one
30.00%
[female] student felt the
nutrition level was
25.00%
sufficient or better.
20.00% Portion
Along the same vein,
15.00% Nutri…
zero male respondents
10.00% Taste from Karibaribi
5.00% Fresh… expressed discontent
0.00%
regarding the portion
K(F) K(M) SP(F) SP(M) GR(F) GR(M)
size, freshness, taste and
K(F) K(M) SP(F) SP(M) GR(F) GR(M)
Freshness 0.00% 0.00% 5.41% 4.76% 6.25% 1.27% nutritional value of the
Taste 0.00% 0.00% 13.51% 7.14% 10.00% 8.86% food; however, 8-12% of
Nutrition 4.00% 0.00% 16.22% 9.52% 5.00% 5.06% male respondents at
Portion 12.00% 0.00% 21.62% 26.19% 8.75% 10.13% Karibaribi sought
improvements in food
quality, nutrition and/or
portion size in the free-response recommendations section.
In general, male respondents were approximately twice as likely to express discontent regarding
portion size over taste or nutritional value and more than six times as likely to express discontent
regarding portion size over freshness. Female pupils responded similarly in terms of portion
size, but cited discontent with freshness more than twice as often as male respondents. Female
respondents were also 32% and 40% more likely to express discontent with taste and nutritional
value (respectively) than their male counterparts.
2.1.6 Recommendations:
Recommendations fell into

eight categories: Quality of 80.00%
Cooking (preference for

Recommendations
70.00%
frying, removing (Gendered Comp.)
stones/stray objects, adding 60.00%
sugar/salt), Nutrition (adding 50.00%
fruits and vegetables, using
liquid cooking oils to 40.00%
decrease cholesterol, adding 30.00%
“nutrients”), Variety,
individual quantity (portion 20.00%
size), Overall Quantity 10.00%
(more total food/expanding
the programme), Cost 0.00%
(reduce/eliminate),
Demeanor of Cooks (rare),
No Recommendations Female Male Total
(thanks, encouragement to
continue feeding
programme, blank responses). These were then further subdivided into high and low priority
recommendations based on strength of average response, expressed as a percentage of each
school’s total pupil population. Recommendations designated as high priority were Variety
(72%), Quality (33%), Nutrition (23%), and Portion Size (15%), whereas low priority
recommendations were Total Quantity/Programme Expansion (6%), Reduce/Eliminate Cost
(2%), Cooks Demeanor (literally one girl – 0.35%), and None (9%). The major exception to this
categorization was St. Patrick’s where 19% of pupils (26% of males and 10% of females)
recommended expansion of the feeding programme or total quantity of food. It is possible that
the disparity between male and female response in this instance suggests a greater number of
portion of male pupils are unable to benefit from the feeding programme on a daily basis by
eating to satiation.
Excluding one outlier, there was minimal variance between female and male responses for this
variable; male respondents were more than twice as likely as female respondents to express
desire for the feeding programme to be expanded or for the overall amount of food to be
increased. Presenting a similar scenario to the responses regarding benefits, the gendered
comparison for pupil recommendations, indicating nearly an identical trajectory between male
and female response, increase the validity of comparisons across schools, featured on the
following page.
At Karibaribi, a significant minority, 44.9% of respondents, urged AfCiC to introduce softer
foods for children in nursery through Class 3 as the maize in githeri proves too difficult for them
to chew. It is remarkable that any student would use the recommendations section to suggest
improvement that does not directly benefit him or her-self. For nearly half the pupils to make
this recommendation, the need must be dire indeed. Although the pupils at St. Patrick’s did not
respond to this issue nearly as strongly, the teachers did mention that the maize in githeri was
difficult for the younger children to chew.
The data present a

High Priority Recommendations moderately strong
negative correlation
100.00% between student
90.00% population and quality of
80.00% food prepared. The
70.00%
60.00% greater the amount of
50.00% pupils attending a given
40.00%
school, the lower the
30.00%
20.00% quality of food prepared.
10.00% Approximately one third
0.00%
Quality Nutrition Variety Portion of respondents expressed
Karibaribi 12.24% 12.24% 93.88% 22.45% dissatisfaction with the
St. Patrick's 32.91% 31.65% 67.07% 20.25% quality of food. In
Garissa Road 38.99% 22.64% 67.92% 10.69% response to quality,
teachers commented that
leaves, dust, and other airborne debris can contaminate the food as children eat outside.
Particularly at Karibaribi and Garissa Road, educators recommended implementation or
construction of a covered shelter, in which the children could eat their food while averting such
risks and nuisances. However, were the pupils to consume their food in their classrooms, this
would not only address the same issue, but rather, would also improve ease of monitoring daily
participation.
Overall, more than 72% of children desired variety in their foods, a recommendation that was
supported by every cook and teacher interviewed across the three schools. The graph below
illustrates how much greater demand children cited for variety over any other high priority
recommendation – especially at Karibaribi, where pupils were nearly eight times as likely to
recommend a variety of meals over improvements related directly to quality or nutrition.
Increasing the variety of foods offered through the programme may require a slight to moderate
budgetary increase, but could also improve outcome indicators related to academics. By varying
the diet and introducing more nutrition, potentially through vegetables from the AfCiC or school
farms, the school feeding programme could increase physical and mental stamina and capacity,
thereby improving the academic performance of the pupils.
2.2 Focus Group Discussions Responses
Interactive discussions were held in the three schools whereby both genders were involved and
given equal opportunities to respond to the questions that were being administered by the
researchers. A minimum of 10 respondents were engaged in the focus group discussion in order
to get as much information from them as possible. Below is an introduction of the three schools
and their responses to the questions asked.
Garissa Road Primary School

This is a school where every child is fed but has to make a monthly contribution of Ksh. 60
meant to cater for firewood at the start of the term and failure to pay the amount one is not
eligible to participate in the programme. Ugali, beans and kales is the meal that they are served
with everyday throughout the term. There was equal representation of both genders as the group
comprised of 5 boys and 5 girls. The focus group discussion consisted of randomly selected
pupils from standard 4 to 8.
Karibaribi Primary School

This is a school where all the pupils benefit from the school program, a fee of Ksh.60 is
contributed by every pupil in the school in order to participate in the feeding programme. They
are served with githeri from Tuesday to Friday but on Monday a group of neighbouring nuns
provide lunch for them. The group was made up of 5 boys and 5 girls randomly selected from
standard 4 to 8 where boys and girls were equally represented.
St. Patrick’s Primary School

This is a school whereby there are two groups of pupils, vulnerable pupils and pupils from
average families that can provide for their children daily needs both in school and at home. In
this school the teacher in charge of the feeding programme selects the most vulnerable pupils
who are to benefit from the programme without being charged anything. There are another lot of
pupils that buy the food for Ksh. 10 per day. A large percentage of the pupils in the school rely
on the food provided by the programme. They are usually served with porridge at 10o'clock and
githeri during lunch. The group was made up of 3 boys and 8 girls.
2.2.1 Questions and Responses:

Question 1. Knowledge of the feeding program in your school?

All the pupils admitted that they know the existence of feeding programme in their school.

The pupils are aware of the feeding programme and further said it is usually provided by AfCiC.
The respondents in this group know about the feeding programme and further said that it is
provided by AfCiC.
Question 1 a). What are the goals of the feeding programme?

The pupils thought that the objectives of the feeding program were to reduce or save on time
used by the pupils to go home for lunch, to provide food for the pupils who don't get food at
home, to prevent pupils from going to the street to beg or work for food, to help orphans and
poor pupils with something to eat and also provide cheap food for pupils.

They thought that the goals of the feeding program were to help the pupils understand well in
their exams, help the pupils grow, improve the pupils memory and concentration in class,
improve attendance in school such that the pupils have no reason for missing school as they are
able to access a daily meal and helps avail food for the pupils as some do not have anything to
eat at home most of the times. This gives them a chance to at least have one meal every day they
come to school.

The views of the pupils in regard to the feeding programme objectives were to help pupils in
school to access food while in school, improve concentration of pupils in class and also help
them achieve their goals, help children to work hard so as to develop the country, provide a daily
meal to those pupils who don't have anything to eat at home. The programme intended to reduce
wastage of time at lunch break for those who live far and also enhance nutrition and physical
benefits.
Question 1 b). How are children selected for the feeding program?

The pupils responded that there were no set selection criteria in the school as interested pupils
are supposed to pay Ksh. 60 per term for firewood so as to participate in the school feeding
programme.

All the pupils in the group were beneficiaries of the school feeding programme who were
benefiting 4 days a week that is from Tuesday to Friday. On Mondays there is a group of nuns
who provide other types of food so as to substitute their diet.
On the selection of beneficiaries, the pupils informed the researchers that the teachers observe
pupils and then decide if they will be included in the programme. Some pupils are asked by
parents to find food on their own, so they speak to the teachers to let them eat in the school
programme. Also the teachers notice the pupils who do not concentrate in class and include them
in the feeding programme.
Question 2. If the respondents are beneficiaries of the feeding program?

It was noted that all the pupils in the focus group discussion were beneficiaries of the feeding
programme.

All the pupils in the group were beneficiaries of the school feeding programme

All the pupils were beneficiaries of the feeding programme.
Question 2 a). How many days a week do the respondents benefit from the feeding program?

The pupils participate in the programme for five days a week showing the level of reliance on the
food provided in school. This helped conclude that the program has achieved its main objective
of keeping the children in school and has enabled more enrolments in this school.

The pupils were benefiting 4 days a week that is from Tuesday to Friday. On Mondays there is a
group of nuns who provide other types of food so as to substitute their diet.

Out of the eleven respondents, nine pupils said that they eat the food provided by the feeding
programme for all the five days in a week but the other two eat the feeding programme food
thrice a week as they said that at times they bring their own food once or twice a week.
Question 2 (a) (i). If less than five for any student, why?

All pupils participated in the feeding programme for five days a week.
The reason is that on Mondays there is a group of nuns who provide other types of food so as to
substitute their diet.

The two pupils who participate in the feeding programme thrice a week said that at times they
bring their own food once or twice a week.
Question 3. Effects of an empty stomach on the respondent

The pupils thought that if a child is on an empty stomach his or her mood will be affected and
would be very sleepy in class, they would have a bad attitude towards school and this will affect
their behaviour, their concentration would be affected such that they would not be able to listen
to the teachers, hence, poor performance in class work.

When the respondents were asked how they would be affected if they were on an empty stomach
while in school, this is what they thought would be situation: they would miss school or not
attend their classes at all, their mood would be affected such that would be in a sad mood, behave
in a not so pleasing manner that would make them angry when hit by the hunger punks. Their
concentration would be affected such that would be unable to concentrate in their academics
which would reflect in their performance.

In regard to how an empty stomach would affect them, they thought that they would behave in a
different behaviour instead of the usual calmness experienced in the school. Their concentration
would be affected and performance negatively affected. They would be very hungry and sad.
Question 4. Effects of the non-existence of the feeding programme on the pupils

The pupils responded that if the feeding program did not exist they would be affected in their
attendance as many pupils said that they would go to the streets to look for food, they would get
involved in child labour activities which would make them drop out of school, their performance
in class would be poor, they would want to be isolated from other kids and would be violent and
angry due to hunger and inability to concentrate in class.

The pupils were of the thought that if the feeding programme did not exist they would be greatly
affected such that they would avoid going to school, perform poorly in their academics, they
would be in bad moods and would be angry and violent.
With the non-existence of the feeding programme the respondents said that this would affect
their attendance in school such that most of them would be forced to go out and look for food on
their own, they would perform poorly in their academic work, would be very moody such that
they would want to be isolated from the other pupils and they would be sickly because they have
no energy to keep them going during the day.
Question 5. What do the respondents like about the feeding program?

The respondents showed how they appreciated the feeding program and said that they like the
program because it assists poor pupils and orphans to get at least one meal each day, helps
improve performance, health and strength of pupils, helps keep pupils in school, provides meals
to pupils whose parents are poor and cannot feed them and helps to vary pupils' diet those who
cannot access some other kind of food at home.

In regard to a question asked about what they like about the feeding programme, the pupils had a
lot to say whereby they highlighted issues like the food keeps them healthy and energized, the
programme gives the pupils hope as they are sure that when they attend school they will have
something to eat, the food helps them concentrate in class. The food helps them concentrate in
class and prevents the kids from dosing off in class due to hunger. The programme offers food
that gives them a daily meal because at times they don't have anything to eat at home. The food
keeps off diseases like kwashiorkor and other malnutrition diseases among the pupils.

The respondents had the following to say in regard to what they like about the programme help
the pupils with their education, physical health and performance. Helps the pupils access food
and nutrition, helps parents avoid borrowing money to feed their children, helps parents to save
on money that should have been used to buy lunch. Prevents pupils from stealing so as to get
money for food, keeps away kids from bad company that exposes them to drugs and prevents the
pupils from child labour. The programme helps keep the pupils in school and off the streets, this
is one of the most important objectives that have been realized during the implementation of the
programme.
Question 6. If the respondents were in charge of the feeding program, what changes would
you make and why?

The respondents thought that if they were in charge of the feeding programme, they would at
least try to change the diet and include other meals like rice and beans, they can be inspecting
food to ensure that it is of good quality e.g. ensure that it has salt, the vegetables should be fresh,
well cut and properly cooked, the food should be inspected while in the store because the kales
turn yellow and the cooks cook the vegetables still. They were for the opinion that the food items
should be cooked only when they are fresh and in good condition. They would also ensure that
pupils who cannot afford the Ksh. 60 should somehow be included to get the food. They would
give the surplus food to the pupils who cannot afford to pay the amount. Since most girls don't
like ugali they would ensure the provision of more vegetables and beans for them or adjust their
diet. The pupils thought that the deadline to pay the required Ksh. 60 should be extended as it
locks out many pupils, thus they would make arrangements to enable these pupils pay the
amount later and participate in the feeding programme as some of them are genuinely unable to
raise the amount in the period given. This will help avoid pupils missing school in the course of
the term due to lack of food for lunch or any food at all.

If the respondents were in charge of the feeding program, this is what they would have done to
make the programme better, add a variety of food like rice and ugali and chapati because the
githeri served is too hard for the small pupils to chew, would re-introduce porridge in the
morning for all pupils, they would include fruits in the diet, would also improve on the quality of
food that is prepared for the children. They would add carrots, cabbages, kales, meat, potatoes
and tomatoes in the githeri to make it healthier and better.
They would emphasize on serving the porridge with a snack at 11a.m because some pupils have
nothing to eat for breakfast at home and this would make the situation better because that is the
case for quite a number of pupils whose parents are unable to feed their children with the basic
meals when at home.

If the respondents were in charge of the programme, they would make changes like adding a
variety of food to include rice and ugali. They would ensure the food is well cooked with
tomatoes and enough cooking oil, ensure that the quality of the porridge is improved because it
is usually too watery and if finances allow they can add milk to the porridge so as to make it
nutritious. They would include fruits like bananas and oranges. The diet should be improved to
eliminate malnutrition and prevent diseases, they would make sure that all the pupils get equal
portions of food because they get portions that are not equal whereas they are in the same class
and of the same size. Also, pupils in the feeding programme would be given the first priority
instead of those who have paid for the food because currently, those who pay are prioritised
before the vulnerable pupils in the feeding programme. The quality of food should be much
better. Currently, when the cooks notice that the food will not be enough they add hot water to
the porridge and githeri, sometimes the githeri has stones in it. They would ensure the cooks
keep the kitchen clean and discourage the cooks from making some kids clean the kitchen, tend
the garden and split firewood for favours like more food. They would ensure that food should be
served in a particular order starting with the youngest pupils so as the small pupils from nursery
don't line up for a long time. They would be using the class register when serving food to avoid
pupils sneaking into the queue and claim they have paid.
Question 7. Recommendations
1. Introduction of softer foods for the small pupils was essential, this was a recommendation
emphasized by the older pupils especially in Karibaribi Primary School.
2. Variety of food and fruits should be introduced in the feeding programme.
3. Pupils from St Patrick’s wanted equal portions of food for all, reason being the cook at
the school serves food favouring some pupils who help her in cleaning the kitchen and
tend the garden.
4. Most of the respondents would like the quality of food improved.
5. The pupils from St Patrick’s recommended that class registers should be used when
serving lunch and the little children from nursery to standard 3 should be served first and
that order should follow up to the senior most students.
6. Introduction of porridge and a snack would be ideal especially where the service is not
available.
7. The porridge should be made nutritious by adding some milk if finances allow.
2.2.2 Observations
1. The programme has achieved an important goal of ensuring the children regularly attend
school by addressing hunger, which is the primary cause that leads the children to the
streets.
2. The children said that drop out cases are nowadays rare, they also emphasized that the
children from the streets are being attracted by the programme to come back to school as
there is something the can drink and eat during the day.
3. It is evident that the programme has enabled the pupils concentrate in class, which has
resulted in improved academic. In Karibaribi Primary School, the school records clearly
show improvement per class at the end of every term both internally and externally.
4. The pupils are aware of the impact of the feeding programme in terms of finances,
whereby they are convinced that it has reduced the amount spent by their parents on their
food and has enabled their parents avoid borrowing money for feeding.
5. The pupils appreciated the organization for the provision of the feeding programme in
their schools because it has provided meals to those pupils whose parents are unable to
feed their children at least once a day.
6. The most-needy pupils appreciated the little they were having in school and did not give
recommendations because they were satisfied.
7. Most of the pupils thought that the school feeding programme has enabled them save on
time they could have used to go home to get food from home.
8. In Garissa Road Primary School and Karibaribi Primary School the children had
developed good rapport with the cooks, resulting in an amicable atmosphere between the
cooks and beneficiaries. In St. Patrick’s this was not the case as the pupils tended to
complain about their cook which may have led to the numerous cases of dissatisfaction.
9. When engaged in the one-on-one interviews, approximately two thirds of pupils
suggested that they would still come to school even without food, whereas, when the
pupils were engaged in the focus group discussion they admitted that they would stop
attending school if the feeding programme did not exist.
2.2.3 Lessons Learned
1. The introduction of a programme on economic empowerment to the parents and the

community around will be a helpful step so as to enhance sustainability of the project and
upgrade their economic status to avoid a repeat of these cases in future.
2. Sessions on life skills should be introduced in the schools to enable the children avoid
relying on charity projects so at to ensure that they work hard and avoid total reliance on
charity for survival.
3. It was noted that there is often surplus food in Karibaribi Primary School and Garissa
Road Primary School while the food at St. Patrick’s is often insufficient. This strongly
indicates the need for a proper monitoring framework. Accurate, standardized records of
the number, names and class levels of pupils at each school would go a long way towards
minimizing inconsistency and inform improvements in programme implementation.
2.3 Parent Responses:
Parents and guardians were randomly selected in the various schools although due to the nature
of their work as they work as casual labourers, the researchers were unable to get responses from
the targeted number of parents in the three schools. The reason behind this is the fact that if they
fail to go to their work places they won't get paid for that day and this is a great challenge if we
cannot have opinion of some of the most important stakeholders in the program. Out of the
targeted 30 parents, only 16 parents were able to find time to come and participate in the
evaluation. One-on-one interviews were held with the parents.
Question 1. Awareness of the feeding programme in the school.

The response from the parents about awareness of the feeding program was that everyone was
aware of the program.
Question 2. If their children are beneficiaries of the feeding programme

Some of their children were not beneficiaries of the feeding programme. Out of the sixteen
parents only fourteen of them had their children as beneficiaries of the school feeding
programme in the various schools.
Question 2. a) If they had more than one child participating in the feeding program? Specify
how many they have as beneficiaries?
Most of the parents have more than one child in the school and out of the sixteen parents that
were interviewed, five parents had one child, six parents had two children, two parents had three
children and only one parent had four children . There was a trend that was noticed that most of
the financially unstable parents in the these schools had more than 1 child and were earning a
total of Ksh. 200 or less per day and in most cases only one spouse was working so as to sustain
the family. Whereas, those that had one child were earning a more than Ksh. 300 and above per
day in their small businesses or casual jobs and both spouses were working in order to sustain the
family. The parents with one child in the schools were from St Patrick’s Primary and Karibaribi
Primary School. This pointed out a gap to be filled by researchers in future so as to address
situations like this in order to eradicate poverty.
Question 3. How long have they benefited from the feeding programme?
The data showed that most parents said that their children had benefited from the program for
more than 4 years which showed the level of reliance of the feeding program. A child to one of
the respondents has been in the feeding programme for the last eight years in school.
Question 4. Does your child benefit from the program every school day?
Whereas 79% of the parents said that their children benefit from the program 5 days a week,
21% do not benefit on a daily basis.
Question 4 (i). If less than five days a week, what causes these absences?
The reasons for not participating in the program daily were some parents live separately and
during the weekends the children go to their mothers' house who packs their lunch for Monday
as they go to school. Others said that due to lack of a variety of food in their meals and the low
quality of food the parents prefer homemade meals for the children's lunch. Another parent
commented that there were underlying issues between the cooks and the children that made some
of them carry food from home.
Question 5. How has your child/children benefited from the feeding program?
The parents highlighted that the feeding programme had been of great benefit to their children
because they had noted improvement in the school attendance, performance, physical health,
attitude hence their concentration in class. Also the parents thought that the program was of great
help to them as they did not have to worry about packing lunch for their children, the program
helped them reduce their budget on food items, the program helped make all children equal
despite their backgrounds and helps provides a daily meal to those children whose parents cannot
afford one for them.
Question 6. If this program did not exist, would your child/children still attend school?
79% of the parents interviewed thought that their children would still attend school if the
program did not exist whereas, 21% thought that their children would not attend school at all as
they would not be able to concentrate fully because of lack of food.
Question 6 a). If no, why not?

The parents said that their children would not be able to concentrate fully in class because of
hunger brought due to lack of food.
Question 6 b). If no, what would they be doing instead?

These parents thought that children would rather stay at home, go out in the day to beg for food,
transfer the children to a school that has the feeding program and some would be sending their
children to school only when they can afford to provide a meal for lunch.
Question 7. What is the parent’s marital status?

While 60% of the parents interviewed were found to be married, 40% of the other parents were
either single, separated/divorced or widowed which meant a high risk of vulnerable children
considering their economic status.
Question 7 a). If married, what is the total income of both parents/guardians?

The data from the parents showed that per day only one parent earned below Ksh. 100, eight
parents were in the Ksh. 100 - Ksh. 300 bracket, no one earned between Ksh. 300 - Ksh. 400 and
only four parents earned above Ksh. 400. The other 3 parents were not involved in any income
generating activities. Only four of their spouses earned between Ksh. 200 to Ksh.400 an income
that is a bit reasonable, the other twelve parents either had no spouse or did not want to comment
on their spouse's income.
Question 8. The parents recommendations for improving the program

For the improvement of the program, the parents recommended that the quantity of food served
should be increased because at times the children complain the food is too little, improve on the
quality of food served, introduction of a variety of food and addition of fruits, the program
should provide additional implements such as drinks after meals, the fee charged should be
lowered so that more children can benefit, the welfare of the cooks should be taken care of,
increase the number of beneficiaries, parents appreciated the feeding programme and also
something should be done as the children have complained a lot about the cooks.
2.4 AfCiC Representative:
The AfCiC representative for the school feeding programme is charged with ensuring optimal
logistical frameworks for purchasing and delivering food to the three beneficiary primary
schools. Notes from weekly monitoring meetings with school leadership are compiled into
monthly reports. However, this position does not maintain records regarding the number of
children fed daily, attendance rates, or academic performance of beneficiary children, with the
exception of end-of-term data on municipality exams, which apply to the total population as
opposed to the lesser beneficiary population. Estimates of the number of children who benefit
from the feeding programme at each school were similar to those provided by teachers.
Fluctuation at Karibaribi and Garissa Road were deemed to be normal and minimal, whereas at
St. Patrick’s, fluctuation was observed as a result of low quality and variety of food.
Some trends noticed by the AfCiC representative:
 Lack of variety in meals is an issue

 Some pupils not deemed “acutely vulnerable” avoid paying for their meals
 Garissa Road pupils maintain high attendance rates throughout all three terms
 When parents are sick or unable, pupils tend to miss school in order to assist families
According to the AfCiC representative, the greatest challenges to successfully managing logistics
for the school feeding programme are transportation and fluctuating food prices. For the former,
the delivery vehicle is not always available and for the latter, the representative adjusts the
invoice before submission. Recommendations included improving access channels to the
delivery vehicle and increasing the variety of food served to the children to include rice and
beans, ugali and ndengu.
3. RECOMMENDATIONS
From the above elaborately explained findings, there are a number of core recommendations
necessary:
1. Importance of the SFP

From interviews held with children, who are the key beneficiaries of the SFP, it is apparent that
they feel the programme is crucial to their ability to attend school, stay in school and perform
better in class.
2. Variety and Nutrition

In addition, from the data it is revealed that most children preferred a variance in the diets/menus
within the SFP. Many children as well as teachers indicated the need to vary the diets as a crucial
aspect of improving the SFP. In some schools due to incapacity issues including limited funding,
the programme can only offer a limited range of foods. Children suggested that steps should be
taken to change this. They cited issues such as improved nitration and psychological wellbeing
as the upside of an improved dietary variety. It must also be noted that some of the acutely
vulnerable children only access one meal a day and that is the one provided in school. Hence, it
would be crucial on a fundraising point to emphasize on this.
3. Targeted intervention for boys and girls

Data also indicated, on the questions as to what children would be engaged in whenever they
failed to attend school due to absence of the feeding programme, most children would engage in
different forms of child labor. In fact, most boys attributed prevalence of street children to
availability of the SFP. They responded that if the SFP did not exist, they would mostly be
engaged in street begging. This calls for enhanced, targeted programming for boys to prevent
their going into the streets. On the other hand, girls largely responded that they would be
engaged in forms of domestic child labor in the event that the SFP did not exist. Other research
and reports have indicated that many girls indeed engage in domestic work as a form of child
labor. In the same vein, this paper emphasizes that in addition to other interventions, the SFP
goes a long way in preventing children engaging in domestic work and hence calls for targeted
interventions for girls to reduce and possibly eliminate instances of girls in domestic work.
4. Documentation of the SFP

It was also apparent that documentation for the programme needs to be improved greatly to keep
track of progress, ensure efficiency and effectiveness. In some of the schools, data collection
from daily feeding activities is scant and unreliable due to its inconsistency. In one of the schools
sampled, there was better record keeping demonstrated by consistent implementation and better
knowledge by those responsible for the SFP, of trends and lessons.
5. Taking advantage of attendance to improve performance.
While the SFP was intended to improve attendance of children in school, it was also meant to
improve and sustain good performance of children engaged in the programme. However, it is not
entirely true looking at the data that improved attendance due to the SFP resulted in improved
performance for the children involved. The import of this is that while in all schools stakeholders
admitted that the SFP was instrumental in ensuring attendance and that whenever the SFP was
withdrawn, e.g. During the first and last weeks of the term due to logistical reasons, attendance
dropped, schools have not necessarily taken steps to exploit the improved attendance to improve
performance.
It is our recommendation that this opportunity should be exploited for betterment of performance
for beneficiary children.
4. CONCLUSION
While from the data provided and the analysis thereof it can be established that the SFP has done
a great deal to improve the situations of acutely vulnerable children in line with AFCIC’s
mission and vision, there are still very huge gaps to be filled by better and improved
programming for the SFP.
It is hoped that the above data analysis will provide much needed information, improve
knowledge and eventually influence decision making for future planning and documentation. It
must also be follow by targeted information sharing with relevant stakeholders both public and
private to disseminate lessons learnt on this model. While the SFP is in reality a government
initiative, partners such as AFCIC come on board to supplement this effort and to provide best
practice strategies that could be replicated elsewhere for the ultimate benefit of children.

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ACTION FOR CHILDREN IN CONFLICT

SCHOOL FEEDING PROGRAMME EVALUATION

Report prepared by the AfCiC Monitoring and Evaluations Department:

Abbreviations and Acronyms ……………………………………………...4

AfCiC Action for Children in Conflict

NGO Non-governmental organization

SFP School Feeding Programme

GR Garissa Road Primary School

K Karibaribi Primary School

SP St. Patrick’s Primary School

F Female (Used in data tables/graphs)

M Male (Used in data tables/graphs)

USD United States Dollars

PPP Purchasing Power Parity

M&E Monitoring and Evaluations

STD Standard (Class level)

 School Feeding programmes & Holiday Clubs in St Patrick’s Primary School,

1. How many children benefit from the feeding program

The evaluation targeted various stakeholders in the program including:

1. Teachers – teacher responsible for the program, head teacher

School Total No. of children Sample size

Sample Distribution: How reliable is our [pupil] data?

Participation in the School Feeding Programme:

Attendance without the Feeding Programme

a) quality of cooking (preference for frying, removing stones/stray objects, adding

 Variety (72%), Quality (33%), Nutrition (23%), Portion Size (15%)

 Low Priority Recs: None (9%), Total Quantity/Program Expansion (6%),

Action for Children in Conflict (AFCIC) is a Non-governmental Organization (N.G.O) registered

At inception, AFCIC concentrated mainly on rehabilitation of street children, with a focus on

2.1 Children Data and Responses:

2.1.1 Reliability of Data:

8 [%]8 7 [%]7 6 [%]6 5 [%]5 4 [%]4 T [%]LOC [%]TOTAL

In total, 53.31% of total child respondents a

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

Benefits (Gendered Comp.)

When designing the

scores over every year of

“The AfCiC School Feeding Programme protects between

Boys were 12% more likely than girls to do one

results and trends from previous AfCiC Female Activity Sans

chores and labour to sustain their families, or 70% Child Labour

Both data and precedent strongly indicate the

Overall, 85.7% of students responded Karibaribi St. Patrick's Garissa Total

Additionally, 24% of children at St.

Recommendations fell into

Cooking (preference for

The data present a

Garissa Road Primary School

Karibaribi Primary School

St. Patrick’s Primary School

2.2.1 Questions and Responses:

Garissa Road Primary School

Karibaribi Primary School

Question 1 a). What are the goals of the feeding programme?

Garissa Road Primary School

Karibaribi Primary School

St. Patrick’s Primary School

Garissa Road Primary School