Blue Band manufacturer, Upfield yesterday marked the end of their schools’ program at Magadi Primary School, Kisumu County. The campaign dubbed, ‘The Good Breakfast Campaign’ was recently launched at Lower Kabete Vet Lab primary school with the aim to reach over 2 Million school children directly.
The school program was a 3-week behaviour change program that was activated in Western County in over 2,000 schools. With the multiplier effect using an average of 3 children per home, Blue Band campaign approximately reached 6 million school children both directly and indirectly as well as the parents and guardians.
The campaign in its 3rd year since its inception in 2016, seeks to tackle the serious issue of poor nutrition among school going children by driving behavior change and teaching students the importance of a nutritious breakfast. This in mind, children were taken through the process of preparing a good nutritious breakfast which entails Blue Band spread on bread or topped up on porridge, with a fruit, and tea with milk.
As part of the program, food diaries were provided to the students to record their daily breakfast routine at home with their parents and guardians. This ensured that the information received in school was also shared at home and had buy-in from guardians. In addition, the children were also actively involved in fun and engaging challenges such as reciting pledges, doing the Blue Band dance and reading the Blue Band comic book.
According to Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), at least 29.9 per cent of children under five years have moderately stunted growth with another 13 per cent underweight because they do not get sufficient nutrients for optimal physical and mental development
Speaking during the school award ceremony, Marketing Manager at Upfield, Ms. Wanjiku Njonjo said, “When we first launched this campaign back in 2016, we only targeted children in Nairobi and its environs, but later realized that there was a gap in the rural settings and there was potential to grow bigger and beyond to other different counties.”
Blue Band understands that it is every mom’s desire to give the best to their children and this partnership provided useful support to ensure that all children should be able to access a nutritious breakfast.
