School meals offer lifeline in Uganda’s hunger-stricken Karamoja region
As over 100 member countries and over 140 partners gather for the Global Summit of the School Meals Coalition in Fortaleza, Brazil, thousands of kilometres away in Karamoja, Uganda, entire communities participate in — and benefit from — ensuring that children eat healthy meals at school.
By Didas Kisembo
On a sun-baked morning in Namalu Mixed Primary School, 17-year-old Grace Lilli Naiton lines up with her classmates for a steaming cup of porridge. For them, it is more than just breakfast — it is the key to being able to concentrate in school. “When you go to class when you haven’t had porridge or lunch, you’ll not be okay,” she says. “You will feel hunger, and you will not get what the teacher is teaching.”
Grace is one of 255,000 students in northeastern Uganda’s Karamoja region who benefit daily from school meals provided by the World Food Programme (WFP) in partnership with the government. In this remote, semi-arid corner of the country, where surveys from 2019 to 2020 reported child poverty rates at 68 percent and literacy among adults at just over 30 percent — far below the national average of 76 percent — these meals are helping kids stay focused, healthy, and in school.
Fifteen-year-old Moses Ilukol, also in primary year seven, echoes Grace’s sentiment. “My favourite time in school is break time,” he grins. “Because we are given porridge and lunch, which gives us some energy to enable us to go and read books.” Without it,” he says, “our performance will become poor.” Last term, the menu featured rice and beans with fortified cooking oil — carbohydrates for energy, proteins for growth and the added micronutrients to boost immunity and general wellness. And the impact goes far beyond the classroom — it transforms the community.
The school feeding programme in Karamoja is a catalyst for socioeconomic change. By sourcing food locally in Karamoja, WFP injected $1.9 million into the regional economy in 2024 alone, buying 3,400 metric tons of cereals and pulses from smallholder farmers. This home-grown school feeding approach — where the food served at school is sourced from local farmers — empowers communities, reduces reliance on distant food supplies, and builds resilient food systems in a region that has been battered by famine and conflict.
The head teacher at Namalu, Opio John Robert, has seen the positive impact firsthand. Enrolment has surged: last year, the school welcomed 16 percent more children than in 2023, with no failures in primary leaving exams. “This feeding programme has enabled us to retain the learners in class,” he says.
The programme also integrates innovation as a critical component. In the school gardens, children learn about sustainable agriculture and how to diversify their diets. WFP has introduced the production of orange-fleshed sweet potatoes in 103 schools in Karamoja. The sweet potatoes are key to addressing vitamin A deficiency, especially in vulnerable groups like children. They are also essential for food security since they are easy to grow, drought-tolerant, and can be harvested multiple times a year, making them a reliable food source.
“We have learned how to plant the orange-fleshed potato,” Grace explains. “Now, even some of us have taken some vines home and planted them, and they are helping us from home.” Her family now harvests their own, easing the burden on parents who often skip lunch at home.
Last year, WFP supported 67 schools across Karamoja by building new kitchens, upgrading existing facilities, and equipping them with energy-saving stoves, reducing firewood use, and trained 300 school cooks to significantly reduce demand on natural resources.
In addition, WFP and the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the Grundfos Foundation and the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs are partnering to support diverse, eco-friendly diets across Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda. By 2027, the programme aims to create 1,300 school gardens, train 61,500 smallholder farmers in climate-smart agriculture, and supplying 398 schools with fuel-efficient equipment across the three neighbouring countries — the majority in Uganda’s Karamoja region.
In a region where nutrition outcomes are among the worst in Uganda, these efforts are improving children’s health and education for the future. As a member of the global School Meals Coalition, which Uganda joined in 2023, the government has pledged resources to expand school feeding under its Universal Primary Education Programme.
“It’s the most sustainable way of keeping children in schools. When children eat at school, the retention levels are high,” says Milton Muwuma, a Member of the Uganda Parliament from the Karamoja region. He urges the government to scale it nationwide, noting how school meals combat dropout rates fuelled by hunger.
For Grace, the impact is personal. “It has helped us so much. By bringing food, so many children are coming to school to study.” As she heads home after class, her story serves as a reminder: in Karamoja, a meal at school isn’t just food — it’s hope for a healthy, bright future.
WFP Uganda’s school feeding programme is made possible through the generous support of the Governments of Uganda, China, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Denmark, Korea, and the Lions Club Foundation, as well as the United Nations Joint SDG Fund, the Novo Nordisk Foundation, and the Grundfos Foundation.
