How the ‘Green Giga Kitchen’ is keeping children in school

The most anticipated bell in schools is often the lunchtime bell that echoes through the halls, sending a wave of excitement to the children.

The lunchtime bell is like music to their ears and children often can’t wait to satisfy their hunger and recharge for the rest of the day.

At Olympic Primary School in Kibera, at 12.30pm, children jump excitedly, carrying dishes and the Tap to Eat watches in their hands to line up for food.

Back in the day, some of them were forced to endure pangs of hunger as they did not have the luxury of meals.

However, now they look forward to lunch hours because they have hot and nourishing meals that await them.

This has been made possible by the Food For Education Organisation in partnership with Nairobi City County's project Dishi na County.

Food for Education aims to eradicate hunger by providing hot, nutritious meals at a time with its innovative work and technology usage ranging from climate-centralised kitchens to the digital devices known as Tap to Eat watches.

On a chilly morning, I visited the Food for Foundation Steam Gas Giga Kitchen, also referred to as the Green Giga Kitchen, in Nairobi, where the food is prepared.

It was a sight was to behold as the hustle and bustle of a busy kitchen came into view. 

The towering metal machines with metal pipes and valves complemented the kitchen.

These machines, integrated in powerful ways, made it easier to prepare meals for hungry children.

I could feel the heat radiating from the Giga steam gas kitchen, and it was clear that this was no ordinary one.

The 3,000 square metre and 32,000 square foot giga-kitchen is a sustainable energy infrastructure.

The employees were clad in protective gear, working with precision and speed as they manoeuvred the kitchen.

The steam gas kitchen prepares a meal that serves more than 60,000 children in the city.

The kitchen has truly revolutionised the preparations of meals, making it not only efficient but also sustainable.

This conserves the environment while offering jobs to more than 3,000 Kenyans.

I'm received by the kitchen manager, Caroline Kinuthia, 24. Young and ambitious, her daily routine ensures children get their meals on time.

Kinuthia said the food is sourced from local farmers, prepared and distributed to schools.

"We limit the number of suppliers to two per kitchen to avoid substandard products and to narrow down to a specific supplier in case of a problem," she said.

COOKING PROCESS

The job has allowed Kinuthia and other young people around to explore their skills and talents in diverse ways.

“Hygiene is our utmost priority. When the employees come in the morning, they have to sanitise and wear protective gear, like gumboots and headgear,” Kinuthia said.

They have a warehouse in Ruiru, Kiambu county, where food products are stored in large amounts and distributed to the kitchens during the week.

The kitchen receives some of the perishable foods weekly (on Wednesdays and Fridays), and cereals are ordered after two weeks.

The received food products are weighed and stored in different rooms, depending on the perishability. The storage rooms have been partitioned to store the perishable and cereal foods separately.

The employees in the kitchen work in two shifts that begin at midnight, when the lighting of the fire takes place. They sort and weigh the food to prepare cooking.

The first shift works from around midday, while the second shift takes over to begin the process of cooking from 11pm.

The evening shift ensures the onions are peeled, tomatoes cut and vegetables ready for cooking.

They have incorporated vegetable peelers and washers to shorten the cooking process, meant to take hours.

Boiler operators come in for the night shift and light the fire, which takes about one hour to start generating the steam for cooking.

She has two assistants who help oversee the activities and make sure everything is up to standard.

There are also two trained cooks to oversee the kitchen when the managers are not present.

The menu includes rice with different types of beans and green grams, vegetables and fruit throughout the week.

The kitchen uses briquettes made up of compressed sawdust and vegetable refuse that burns up to heat water, generating steam that is used to cook the meals.

The green kitchen, she said, helps to mitigate climate change and preserve the environment as they use recycled waste instead of firewood.

“Once the briquettes burn, the cold water will come in from a tank,” Kinuthia said.

“The boiler has a tank inside that heats the water, and once it gets into the ideal temperature and pressure of about 0.8 to 1 bar, it starts to generate the steam, which is then transported to the cooking vessels.”

The green kitchen has two cooking vessels, including the jacketed and non-jacketed cooking vessels.

The two types of cooking vessels aid with faster cooking. The non-jacketed vessels cook foods including beans and green grams, which require more time to prepare.

Jacketed steam kettles eject steam into an outer wall, creating an even flow of heat throughout the entire cooking basin. The temperature of the heat is determined by pressure.

"As it continues to generate the steam, we have some hot water heated water up and taken to the hot water tank that is used to cook. This helps us to cut down our cooking time by 50 per cent," she said.

The steam is not only used for cooking but also for the sterilisation of the kitchen equipment.

"We have the decanters who decant the food from the cooking vessels to the transportation vessels," she said.

QUALITY FOOD

The meals are then packed in lorries and transported to various schools by around 11am. They are stored in insulated cans to keep them hot up to the time of serving.

In the school, the meals are checked to ensure that the temperature of the food is above 75°С.

Headteachers provide information and data on the number of children who will be present the next day in case of an activity at school to avoid food wastage.

The kitchen staff is provided with a list that contains the names of the schools supplied with food, the staff to oversee the operations in the schools and the number of the drums of rice and stew.

Kinuthia said the institution came up with the idea of using Tap to Eat watches after handling cash became a challenge.

“The children used to come with loose change and sometimes some would end up losing the money on their way to school and during break time,” she said.

“Tap to Eat is a virtual wallet where parents top up whichever amount they have to enable them to deduct Sh5 every day for the meals.”

The officers can view the amount in the wallet and advise parents via notification when it is almost depleted to add money.

“For children who are not able to pay the Sh5, we coordinate with the schools to identify them and they are given free meals. Everyone gets to eat,” Kinuthia said.

The Dishi na County programme has employed more staff to help with serving the children in the school.

They arrive one hour before the meals to prepare and oversee that all the children have been fed.

Some of the servers have been trained to measure the temperatures and the quality of the meals and record the data to ensure the children get quality food.

The Food for Education has employed more than 3,000 Kenyans, where 70 per cent of the employees are women.

The employees are taken through training on hygiene and safety regularly to advance their skills in handling the green kitchen and food in general.

HEALTHY AND HAPPY  

Sheilla Kinuthia, mother and a server at Olympic Primary, said the feeding programme has been a blessing to parents in Kibera.

The happy mother said she is fulfilled working during the day because she knows her children will eat a decent meal at lunchtime.

“The school feeding programme has been of immense help, especially for parents who can’t afford the basic needs,” she said.

“Before the feeding programme, I used to pay Sh500 per child per month, and I have two children. It was a struggle.”

Sheila said her children's health has greatly improved since the school feeding programme started.

She said it has become cheaper for parents to afford lunch for their children as they go about their businesses during the day.

“My children are happy to attend school, and I’m assured they will get lunch by the end of the day. My work is to look for the other meals.”

Sheilla said before the initiative, children who could not access food tended to borrow their friends, and it was not a good show.

“I used to work in the kitchen before. Most children who did not afford to pay could sit in class as others went to eat. They would then borrow the food just to satisfy their hunger. In the process, you find all of them are not satisfied.”

Parents part with Sh5 to enable the children to get the meals. This is done through a mobile wallet and executed via the Tap to Eat Watches.

The Food for Education Foundation said the Sh5 is for sustainability purposes.

At the schools, the final action is done behind the scenes. Powerful skills and minds are put together to execute something extraordinary.

The Olympic Primary School headteacher Sinas Okumu said the school has recorded immense improvement.

He said there has been reduced absenteeism as children go to school, relying on the lunchtime meal that is cheaper than staying at home.

“We have noticed an improvement in health and class performance thanks to the feeding programme,” he said.

“We have also seen reduced burden from parents, especially those who could not afford to put three meals on the table.”

The headteacher said the positive impact of the programme outweighs the problems faced.

"At the moment, the successes outweighs the challenges because it is almost at 99.9 per cent,” he said.

Okumu said before the feeding programme started, parents were forced to pay Sh25 a day, bringing the total amount to Sh500 per month.

He added that not all parents were able to pay Sh25 every day, and therefore, the children would stay hungry.

"By then, less than 2,000 children were in the feeding programme. At the moment, almost 99 per cent are benefitting," he said.