At the beginning of January, the FoodLeader project officially begun. The team created different working groups that focus on the various aspects of the project: 1. Laboratory equipment, 2. Dietary and Food safety Assessment Tool (DASAT), 3. Digital platform, and 4. School feeding program and data collection. These groups met frequently and planned activities related to their focus areas.
Additionally, the institutions signed the partnership agreements and organized the first stakeholder meeting with the Finnish Embassy in Kenya. The team also started to prepare a kick-off meeting for the project members from all three partner institutions to be organized in Nairobi and hosted by the University of Nairobi. The aim of this meeting was to enhance collaboration between the partners, visit the laboratory facilities at the University of Nairobi, as well as the primary schools for possible collaboration.
From March 4th to 8th, a one-week kick-off meeting took place at the University of Nairobi, Kenya. Four key experts from Universidade Lúrio and five key experts from the University of Helsinki traveled to the University of Nairobi. The first two days focused on planning the project activities and visiting the laboratory facilities while the last three days were dedicated to meetings with stakeholders, such as the State Department of Agriculture in Nairobi and primary schools in Nairobi.
We visited two primary schools to discuss their school feeding programs and explore potential collaboration. The heads of the schools described the current school feeding programs and their benefits and challenges.
The FoodLeader project coordinator, Katri Salo, at the University of Helsinki commented on the school feeding programs:
- In Nairobi, school meals have recently started to concentrate in large central kitchens. This allows cheaper meals, and more families can afford meals to their children during the school day. On the other hand, it causes new challenges in terms of nutritional quality and food safety. For many children, school meals may be the only meal of the day, and while it is extremely important from a nutritional perspective, in the worst-case scenario it could endanger child’s health.
In the FoodLeader project, we will collect food sample and dietary data from the schools, and university students will have an opportunity to analyze the data and develop local solutions for the school feeding programs together with the schools.
After the kick-off meeting, the we began preparing the updated project documents. We arranged several financial and working group meetings to further develop the project administration and activities. Additionally, the Universidade Lúrio team organized meetings with the Department of Education in Nampula. In April, the stakeholder meetings continued; three project members from the University of Helsinki traveled to Nampula, Mozambique, to meet with the World Food Programme and the Finnish Embassy in Mozambique.
At the end of the inception phase, the we successfully submitted the updated inception documents to the Finnish National Agency for Education and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Finland.
- Created working groups, where the team focus on different project aspects.
- Signed partnership agreements.
- Organized a project kick-off meeting in Nairobi for strengthening the collaboration between partners and stakeholders.
- Development of a detailed work plan and specific milestones.
- Active engagement of the various working groups in advancing their tasks.