Factors Influencing Implementation Of Sustainable School Feeding Programmes In Public Early Childhood Development Education Centres In Marani Sub County, Kisii County, Kenya

Food is essential in the holistic development of young children, without which retardation and stagnation may occur. Success in academic performance depends on the way the young children are nurtured in preschools. Food is a crucial basic need which must be met before other high needs. Despite, the underscored importance of food to preschool children, most school feeding programmes in public ECDE centres in Marani Sub County are dysfunctional .The study was guided by the following objectives, to assess the influence of availability of food on implementation of sustainable SFP, to examine the influence of management on the implementation of sustainable SFP, to establish the influence of parents support on the  implementation of sustainable SFP and to examine the influence of funding on the implementation of sustainable SFP The purpose of the study was to investigate what led to dysfunctional school feeding programmes (SFPs) and how it should be implemented and sustained in public preschools in Marani Sub-County, Kisii County. The study was premised on Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs theory. The study adopted descriptive survey design. The study targeted fifty public preschools with a population of one thousand pupils, fifty head teachers and hundred preschool teachers. Through simple random sampling, fifteen head teachers and thirty preschool teachers were sampled. The study employed preschool and head teachers’ questionnaires to collect data. The content and construct validity of the data collection instruments were ascertained by presenting the instruments for scrutiny by the researcher’s two university supervisors. Reliability of the preschool teachers’ questionnaire was ascertained through test-retest technique. Data were analysed by both descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, means, standard deviations and percentages were used. The four null hypotheses were tested using multiple regression analysis.  The results were presented by use of frequency tables and analyzed and interpreted by use of percentages. The study`s four independent variables contributed 63.5 % of variance in implementation of sustainable SFP (R2 = 0.635). Management of SFP had the most significant relative contribution to the prediction of implementation of sustainable SFP (β = 0.549, p < 0.05), followed by funding of SFP (β = 0.521, p < 0.05), parents’ support (β = 0.328, p < 0.05), while availability of food stuff had the least influence (β = 0.299, p > 0.05). It was concluded that Marani Sub County was endowed with human and material resources for successive implementation of sustainable SFP but most of the ECDE centres lack credible SFP management. The study recommends adaptation of a professional approach to SFP management in all ECDE centres in Marani Sub County Kisii.