Wawira Njiru, a Kenyan social entrepreneur and nutritionist, is the founder and CEO of Food4Education, a pioneering nonprofit dedicated to eradicating childhood hunger in Africa. Her work has created a replicable model for school feeding programs that integrates partnerships with local farmers, parents, logistics providers, and governments. In 2024, the organization launched its pan-African expansion strategy and was recognized in TIME 100’s Most Influential Companies.
As a leading industry voice in shaping food systems of the future, Wawira has been globally recognized for her work, most recently receiving the Skoll Award for Social Innovation, the Elevate Prize, and UPenn's Lipman Family Prize in 2024. A Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum (2021), Wawira is a Bloomberg New Economy Catalyst (2024) and a Ford Foundation (2020) and Rainer Arnhold (2018) global fellow among others. She is also a recipient of the Global Citizen Prize for Youth Leadership Prize (2018), the World's 50 Best Icon award (2022), and the United Nations Kenya Person of the Year, (2021).
Wawira frequently speaks at global forums, such as the United Nations, World Bank, and World Economic Forum, on solving Africa’s hunger and human capital challenges through sustainable, locally grounded school feeding initiatives. Wawira has a Bachelor’s Degree in Nutrition from the University of South Australia.