The Nutrition and Community Garden Program

Food is critical to health. Health is critical to learning.

Despite increasing food and commodity prices in Uganda, we know children cannot learn on an empty stomach. That’s why Nyaka provides a school meal program that has enabled the students to enjoy school and perform well.

2008 was the first year that Kutamba Primary School was able to provide meals for the students. The performance and welfare of the students and teachers at Kutamba has since greatly improved because of this program.

Because attending school is not mandatory in Uganda, the free meals also encourage guardians to send their children to school. For some of the students who live alone without guardians or who live in extreme poverty, these meals are the only meals they get in a day. Many of the children who get meals at home do not get balanced diets, and prior to receiving meals at Nyaka, they often suffered from chronic malnourishment.

The students weight and height is regularly monitored to ensure they are receiving the appropriate number of calories to fuel their growing bodies.

The Nutrition Program is currently implemented by a local contractor who prepares meals for the students in a clean environment and in a timely manner. The menu changes from day to day to provide some variation, but the menu also depends on the foods that are in season. They get breakfast (milk or porridge and a roll) at 10:30 a.m. and an assorted lunch between 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. The items provided for lunch include beans (regularly), meat/protein (once a week), posho/corn mash, rice, banana paste (Matooke), sweet potatoes and/or Irish potatoes.

Ongoing community support

The larger community often suffers from poor nutrition and chronic malnourishment. Therefore, the Nyaka AIDS Orphans Project helped build community gardens through 2008. Today, the Nyaka students work with their guardians at the school garden and are able to take produce home. This program also includes free distribution of vegetable seeds provided by Seed and Light Inc. of Albuquerque, New Mexico to the greater community, as well as ongoing promotion of agriculture and nutrition programs.