Description
Wawira Njiru, the co-founder and CEO of Kenya-based nonprofit Food4Education, began her toast by reminding the room that while it often feels like the future is built by new inventions, technologies, and machines, it is actually built by people.
“The most valuable resource on this planet has never been the things we extract—oil, or gold, or data. It's the things we grow. The things we nurture,” Njiru said. “And right now, the world's largest reserve of it is sitting in African classrooms.”
Food4Education delivers over 600,000 meals each day to children across more than 1,500 schools across Africa. These are young people that we need to be investing in, Njiru said.
While artificial intelligence “promises to make our lives better,” she reminded the crowd that “somebody still has to do the physical stuff, the real stuff, the hard stuff, the human stuff.”
She spoke to her own experience growing Food4Education from a nonprofit that fed just 25 students to one that aims to feed 1 million children each day by 2027.
Though she and her staff grew their organization like a business, she said they did without “losing sight of the people [they] serve.”
When Njiru looks at the children who are in her nonprofit’s food line, she sees “the future.”
“The next scientific breakthrough, creative revolution, or great innovation could come from anywhere, from anyone,” she finished. “That's what gives me hope: what's possible when we invest in—and with—people.”
Read more: https://time.com/collection/time100-next-gala/2026/toasts-highlights/
Subscribe to TIME’s YouTube channel ►► http://ti.me/subscribe-time
Subscribe to TIME: https://ti.me/3E3UCqt
Get the day’s top headlines to your inbox, curated by TIME editors: https://ti.me/48dFNwQ
Follow us:
X (Twitter): https://ti.me/3xTVwSk
Facebook: https://ti.me/3xWI2Fg
Instagram: https://ti.me/3dO9Rcc
0:00 Wawira Njiru on Investing in Africa's Future
0:38 Why Africa's Young Population Could Shape the World
1:11 The Limits of AI and the Importance of Human Investment
1:41 How Wawira Njiru Started Feeding Children in Kenya
1:55 Food for Education Now Feeds 700,000 Children Daily
2:12 Creating Jobs and Strengthening Kenya's Economy
2:43 Why Investing in African Children Matters
3:08 Wawira Njiru's Message About Building the Future