Harvest Hands | School meals and community gardens in western Kenya

HARVEST HANDS · SCHOOL MEALS IN WESTERN KENYA

A hot meal can keep a child in school.

Every school day, Harvest Hands serves 18,400 children a meal grown by their own communities. £1.20 feeds one child for a week.

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Registered charity 1187342. 91p of every pound reaches a child's plate.

A smiling child in a green sweater holding a white meal box on a school lawn

18,400

children fed every school day

2.1 million

school meals served in 2025

112

partner schools in Busia and Bungoma

community gardens now run by parents

91p

of every pound spent on programmes

Schoolchildren drawing together at a classroom desk beneath a chalkboard

A man preparing freshly picked leafy greens on a table outdoors

WHY WE EXIST

Hunger is the quietest reason children leave school.

In 2014 retired teacher Grace Wanjiru noticed that half her class in Busia left before lunch because there was none. She started cooking maize and beans for 40 children under a mango tree.

Today parents grow, cook and serve the food themselves, so every meal also pays a local farmer and teaches a skill. Attendance at our schools has risen from 61% to 94%.

“When the pot is on, the children come. It is that simple.”

Grace Wanjiru, founder and head teacher

WHERE YOUR POUND GOES

Nearly all of it ends up on a plate.

We publish every figure each spring, audited by an independent firm. Here is how each pound given in 2025 was spent.

Young children eating a hot school meal from coloured bowls at a long table

School meals

64p

Maize, beans, oil and fuel for 112 school kitchens.

Community gardens

17p

Seeds, tools and training so schools grow their own food.

Clean water and kitchens

10p

Boreholes, stoves and handwashing stations.

Running the charity

A team of seven in Nairobi and Bristol. No paid fundraisers.

STORIES FROM THE SCHOOLS

The children behind the numbers.

BUSIA · AGE 11

Elijah now walks 4 km to school and stays until four.

Before the kitchen opened, Elijah left at noon to help find food. Last term he came top of his class in maths.

Four schoolchildren in bright clothes sitting together against a red wall

BUNGOMA · CLASS OF 2025

Forty-one pupils from one village sat their exams.

Their school garden grew the beans that fed them through revision. Thirty-four are going on to secondary school.

Children being served plates of hot food from a large basin at school

KAKAMEGA · PARENTS' KITCHEN

Mama Rose cooks lunch for 230 children.

She earns a wage from the school, sells her surplus kale at market and has put two daughters through college.

GIVE A MEAL

£12 a month feeds a child all year.

Choose an amount below, then tell us where to send your secure giving link. Monthly gifts help us plan food a season ahead. UK taxpayers: Gift Aid adds 25% at no cost to you.

£12

One child, fed for a year

£30

A family garden: seeds, tools and training

£60

A school stove that cuts fuel use by 70%

£250

Clean water for a whole school

Make your gift

No card details are taken on this page. Cancel a monthly gift any time.

VOLUNTEER

Give a Saturday, or a summer.

Our 640 volunteers pack food in Bristol, fundraise at home and, each July, join school teams in Kenya for a month.

Pack and sort in Bristol

Saturdays 9 to 1 at our depot. No experience needed, tea provided.

Join a July school team

Four weeks in Busia. Training, flights support and a local host family.

Fundraise your way

Bake, run, quiz. We send a free kit and a friendly human.

Smiling volunteers in light blue shirts holding bags outdoors

Two volunteers packing paper bags with food under a white canopy

Smiling volunteers handing out food from a table

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

Lakeside Schools Board

Busia Growers Trust

Rowan Foundation

Clearwell Water

Severn Nutrition Lab

TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2025

Open books, every year.

Our accounts are audited by an independent firm and filed with the Charity Commission each April. We also publish our school-by-school meal counts and how many pounds each region received.

Request the full audited report

£3.46m

raised in 2025

£3.15m

spent on programmes

spent on running costs

paid fundraisers or commissions

Harvest Hands: charity and campaign page

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