Tradition in Food Preparation

In many Ugandan schools, cooks still draw on traditional methods to bring flavour and warmth to the meals they prepare. When posho or rice is on the menu, they often line the cooking pots with fresh banana leaves before adding the grains. As the food steams, the leaves release a subtle aroma and a gentle sweetness that infuses the otherwise plain staples. Children waiting in line for their lunch may not see the leaves hidden beneath the lid, but they taste the difference in the softness of the rice or the delicate fragrance that clings to the posho.

The benefits of this practice go beyond flavour. Banana leaves act as a natural barrier, preventing the food from sticking to the pot and reducing the need for excess oil or fat. They also add a touch of nutrition, as the steaming process allows trace elements from the leaves to seep into the food. For schools, it is a sustainable choice: banana trees are abundant, the leaves are biodegradable, and their use reduces reliance on synthetic materials. In this way, cooks not only preserve a cultural tradition but also provide healthier, more aromatic meals that connect pupils to the land and its resources.

Happy Teachers' Day

Today, October 5, 2026, is World Teachers’ Day, and Uganda is officially commemorating it alongside the rest of the world. The Uganda National Teachers’ Union (UNATU) is marking the day with professional training and activities focused on teacher welfare and development.

As we visited our supported schools for usual kitchen staff training and to check on the institutional improved cook stoves condition, we noticed private schools had class as usual, while all Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) schools were closed. Other government aided schools in Wakiso district were also operating under normal condition.

Nevertheless, celebrations are happening across the country, but with a stronger emphasis on training, welfare, and professional growth rather than traditional festivities.

A Side Income

The school kiosk can play an important role in the daily life of a school. Every school has one. Its main purpose is to provide students with convenient access to affordable snacks and drinks without requiring them to leave the school grounds. And it is a small but useful source of additional income for the school. The school either operates the kiosk directly, or rents the space to a trusted operator in return for a fixed monthly fee or a percentage of sales.

For students, buying from the kiosk is usually simple: they come during break time or another permitted period, choose what they want and pay with cash or, increasingly, mobile money. Popular snacks tend to be affordable, quick to eat and familiar—for example mandazi, chapati, samosas, doughnuts, biscuits, popcorn, roasted groundnuts and small portions of fruit. Drinks such as water, juice or other affordable beverages may also be popular. The most successful school kiosk is therefore not necessarily the one selling the most expensive products, but the one offering small, reasonably priced snacks that students can easily buy with the money they have available, spending an average of 1,500 Ugandan shillings per day.

Under a Mango Tree

It is a joy to see learning also happening outside the classroom. Sometimes, the best classroom is not a classroom at all. In Uganda, it is common to see children gathered under the shade of a mango tree, books open on their laps and a teacher turning an ordinary outdoor space into a place of discovery. Learning outside gives children a change of environment, fresh air and natural light, while creating opportunities to observe, ask questions and connect what they are learning with the world around them. It can also make lessons feel less confined and more engaging, particularly for younger children who benefit from movement and a different setting.

A mango tree may not have four walls, a blackboard or rows of desks, but it can offer something equally valuable: space to think, explore and learn together. Outdoor lessons can encourage curiosity, creativity and collaboration, while reminding children that education is not limited to what happens inside a school building. In Uganda, where the shade of a mango tree can become a temporary classroom, this simple tradition shows that meaningful learning can happen almost anywhere—when there is a teacher ready to teach and children ready to learn.

Back to School

The third and last school term for the year 2026 starts today. It will end on the 4th of December and will last for 82 days.

The third and final school term can often feel like the most stressful of the year, particularly in schools preparing candidates for national examinations. By this stage, teachers are racing to complete the syllabus, revise key topics and prepare learners for examinations, while students are under increasing pressure to perform well. For school administrators, the term can bring its own demands—budgets are tighter, academic targets must be met, and there is the added responsibility of ensuring that everything runs smoothly through the end of the school year.

Even the school kitchen can feel the pressure: cooks have to maintain consistent meals for busy learners and staff, often while managing large numbers, limited time and demanding routines. It is a term when everyone is looking towards the finish line, but getting there can require the greatest effort of the entire school year.

The Silent Saucepan Threat

Across Uganda, aluminium saucepans are a familiar sight in school kitchens. They are relatively affordable, lightweight and readily available, making them a practical choice for institutions preparing meals for hundreds of children every day. However, their widespread use also raises important questions about durability and food safety. When aluminium cookware is heavily worn, scratched or of poor manufacturing quality, small amounts of aluminium can migrate into food, particularly when cooking acidic foods such as tomatoes or other acidic sauces. While occasional exposure to small amounts of aluminium through food is generally not considered a major health risk, reducing unnecessary dietary exposure is a sensible precaution—especially in schools, where the same cookware is used intensively every day.

The concern is often greater with the large, thin or locally manufactured aluminium saucepans commonly exposed to the intense heat of traditional school cooking methods. High temperatures, prolonged cooking and the physical wear caused by constant stirring and cleaning can gradually damage cookware and shorten its useful life. This is very common when posho (maize meal) is prepared, damaging the bottom of the saucepan.

At the same time, inefficient wood-fired cooking creates uneven or excessively intense heat around the pot, while smoke and soot make the kitchen environment more challenging for cooks. For schools, therefore, the issue is not simply about choosing a saucepan; it is about creating a safer and more durable cooking system that protects both the people preparing the food and the children eating it.

This is where Simoshi’s work in transforming institutional cooking becomes particularly relevant. By supporting schools to adopt improved cooking technologies and more efficient kitchen systems, Simoshi has an opportunity to look beyond fuel savings and carbon reductions and consider the entire cooking environment—including the quality and suitability of cookware. Better-controlled heat, more efficient stoves and appropriately selected, durable cooking stainless steel saucepans helps schools build kitchens that are safer, cleaner and more sustainable.

Training is Crucial

We take training very seriously. Going to the schools six times every year is an exercise that we do not take for granted. Each visit to a school means precious time to learn how the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) are performing, to check on the kitchen environment, and it is an important time to rectify any problems in the kitchen.

That is why training the kitchen staff is crucial to our operations. All cooks sign Simoshi’s training sheets, and this means they have attended the Kitchen Training Assessment and collaborated with our Project Officers when conducting the Kitchen Information Update. Together, they discuss the kitchen situation, share their concerns and any challenges that may arise that could disrupt their work.

Sometimes, problems can be structural to the kitchen building and we take such concerns to the school administration to make sure such issues are resolved. At the end of he day, it is all about the school success, so our work is all about team effort to make sure everyone wins.

Holiday Time

Term II came to an end last Friday, so children now have 3 weeks of holidays to rest before the last school term of the year starts on Monday 14 of September.

Candidates are not so lucky as they do not fully enjoy the whole vacation period. They are still obliged to attend classes, although in a more relaxed environment as they are allowed to go to school without their uniform.

As we are busy visiting all schools to make the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) free repairs, we found the primary 7 grade students lining up for lunch (rice and beans) in Royal Primary Mityana.

Pros and Cons of Large Stoves

Large institutional improved cookstoves (IICS) with a capacity of 400–600 litres can make a significant difference in school kitchens. They are designed to handle large quantities of food in a single batch, making them particularly suitable for schools serving hundreds of children.

However, their large size also creates operational challenges. A 400–600 litre pot contains a huge quantity of food or water, so the IICS needs to be started well in advance and requires a substantial amount of energy during the initial heating period. The IICS works best when cooks use appropriately sized, reasonably dry firewood and operate it correctly. This means that cooks need training, and the combustion chamber, insulation and chimney need regular maintenance. If the IICS is used to prepare much smaller quantities than it was designed for, some of its efficiency advantages can also be lost.

Removing the saucepan for cleaning can also become a major challenge. Some benefits can come with difficulties, and cooks have no choice but to navigate the best solutions to make sure the kitchen is always operational.

The Endless Hats of Cooks

Washing utensils with water fetched in jerrycans can significantly reduce water consumption in a school kitchen, compared with washing under a continuously running tap.

Most schools in Uganda do not have access to running water. A fixed quantity of water is brought to the kitchen, so the amount used is naturally limited.

The water source can be located at a considerable distance, and jerrycans of 20 litres capacity can be heavy to carry, so staff tend to be more careful about how much they use.

However, less water consumed does not necessarily mean the utensils are cleaned better. There needs to be enough water for proper washing and rinsing, adding an extra layer of work to the kitchen staff who can be very busy handling the firewood and tendering their improved cook stoves.

Working in a school kitchen is a demanding job, where both women and men share several responsibilities. Pressure mounts as several activities take place:

1. Cooking finishes – food must be checked, portions prepared and cooking equipment cleared.

2. Food is transferred – large pots or containers need to be moved to the serving area.

3. Students arrive in large numbers – sometimes hundreds of meals need to be served within a relatively short window.

4. Portioning and serving – cooks need to maintain reasonably consistent portions while keeping the queue moving.

5. Utensils are returned – plates, cups and spoons start coming back almost immediately.

6. Washing begins while serving continues – if there is limited water, cooks may have to fetch water in jerrycans and wash utensils in batches.

7. Cleaning and preparation for the next meal – the kitchen needs to be restored quickly, especially if lunch is followed by another cooking period.

Tendering Firewood

Handling firewood is not an easy task. It needs years of experience and patience plays a huge part! But what is purchased makes a huge impact in the performance of the institutional improved cook stove (IICS)

Firewood suppliers may deliver fuel that is unsuitable for efficient combustion. Wet or oversized wood reduces the performance of the rocket IICS, increases smoke emissions, lengthens cooking times, and leads users to believe that the stove is not performing as intended.

Another challenge is ensuring consistency of supply. Firewood availability changes with the seasons, especially during rainy periods when drying is more difficult. Suppliers may initially provide high-quality dry wood but later substitute it with freshly cut or partially dried wood to meet delivery schedules. This inconsistency affects kitchen operations and makes fuel consumption unpredictable.

Selecting the lowest-priced bidder does not always produce the lowest cooking cost. Cheap, low-quality firewood often contains more moisture and less usable energy, meaning larger quantities are required to cook the same meals. Schools may therefore spend more over time despite paying a lower purchase price. This is why at Simoshi we not only train schools to build a storage place for their firewood , preparing their purchases well in advance to ensure the appropriate drying time is provided, but also consider fuel quality and energy value with the same importance as that of the initial cost.

Digital Monitoring Launched

Digital MRV stands for Digital Measurement, Reporting, and Verification. It is a modern way of collecting evidence that a carbon project is achieving the emissions reductions it claims.

Since 2016 we relied heavily on field staff visiting schools, interviewing cooks, checking logbooks, and estimating how much firewood was being saved. This approach is accepted by carbon standards, and it is expensive, time-consuming, because we do a CENSUS approach, meaning all the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) are inspected 6 times every year.

With heat sensors installed in all of the IICS, the project can now automatically record information such as:

• When a stove is used.

• How long it is used.

• How frequently it is used.

• Whether the stove is actually operating throughout the school term, and on holiday periods.

They do not directly measure carbon emissions or firewood consumption. Instead, they support the existing hard data collected in the field and provide reliable evidence that the IICS are being used consistently. This information can then be combined with other data from the physical visits, such as firewood consumption measurements and the project’s approved carbon methodology, to calculate emissions reductions more accurately.

For Simoshi, this represents an important step towards digital MRV.

Simoshi can now build a continuous digital record showing that each installed IICS is actively being used. This increases confidence in the project’s data because the information comes directly from the equipment rather than only from interviews and manual records.

For our carbon finance project, digital MRV can have several benefits:

• It improves the quality and credibility of the monitoring data submitted during carbon credit verification.

• It helps identify schools where IICS are not being used as expected, allowing Simoshi to provide maintenance or additional training before problems affect carbon credit generation.

• It provides stronger evidence to carbon standards, verifiers, and carbon credit buyers that the project is delivering real and measurable climate benefits.

Stones in the Past, Efficiency Today, Electricity Tomorrow

Time is what allows us to put things into perspective, measuring how efforts have made a real impact. When we first visited Bbira Primary School, we found them cooking with 3-stone fires. Since 2016 and with the introduction of the energy efficient institutional improved cook stoves (IICS), the school has been cooking for over a decade with the IICS, allowing them to save at least 50% of their firewood expenditures.

Today, we are working hard to have this school (and all other 120 schools included under Simoshi’s Project Activity) move up the energy ladder by using induction electric stoves. Throughout the end of 2025 and all of this year, we have successfully tested the technology at St. Gyaviira Primary School. We expect to have Bbira Primary also transitioning in 2027.

We wanted to share the passing of time, that beautifully reflects the success story of finding the same cook, Ms. Joyce, we once found struggling with dangerous flames and smoke as she prepared the children’s food at Bbira. As we continue to monitor the kitchen and repair all their IICS every year for free, pictures below reflect the happiness of always finding her there, enjoying a healthier kitchen environment. With some more wrinkles and wiser minds, we cannot wait to see her enjoy the wonders of electricity in a near future.

3-Phase Connectivity is LIVE!

The “School Special Tariff” approved by the Electricity Regulatory Authority is now officially in operation, and our first school to get access to it and enjoy the wonders of electric induction cooking is our dear St. Gyaviira Primary School.

We have been very busy these last months ensuring the connection to 3-pahse is available within the school premises. Technicians from the Ugandan Electricity Distribution Company Limited (UEDCL) were diligently giving the final touches to get all cables, transformers, distribution panels and more, be in safe and ready to use conditions.

Although the school has been cooking with the induction cookers since last year, the fee paid for each KWh used was the standard rate of ugx 756. Accessing this new special tariff will mean the school will be able to save a further 35% when compared to what they currently use with their firewood isntitutional improved cook stoves (IICS). We will be closely monitoring their daily expenditures to assess in detail how best savings can be achieved, taking into account there are further cost reductions if cooking takes place in bandwidth's where off-peak tariffs apply.

There are 3 different tariffs under such school support:

• Shoulder: from 6am to 6pm at ugx 360

• Peak: from 7pm to midnight ugx 565

• Off peak: from midnight to 6am at ugx 169

Using Buckets to Serve

As food gets ready for serving, schools transfer the food from the saucepan in the institutional improved cook stove (IICS) to plastic buckets. These are then transported to the classrooms or dining area where food is individually served on the plates.

Such technique ensures that safety is maintained, as children should not be entering the kitchen. It also protects the IICS from spilling food, as it contains salt and will eventually corrode the stove metal body.

The pictures below show the daily situation where cooks are helped by children to transfer the food and carry the buckets. We wrote before about the importance of keeping children outside the cooking premises, but unfortunately staff is usually limited and have no alternative than resourcing to the help of students.

New Carbon Credit Issuance

We feel proud to announce that a new issuance of 13,658 carbon credits has been achieved for the year 2025. At Simoshi we close our monitoring periods every 31st of December, meaning the verifications represent a full 365 days cycle, every year, without fail. This has helped Simoshi achieve a continuous monitoring of all indicators to attain an impressive track record of transparency and integrity on the 9 Sustainable Development Goals achieved.

This would have never happened without the support of 120 schools that have been participating under the Project Activity. In return, Simoshi has been repairing for free all of their institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) for over a decade now. This ensures the highest efficiencies are achieved, and it is not only represented by the number of carbon credits issued, but also on the monetary savings the schools make from their firewood purchases, the clean kitchen environments that makes schools proud, and the pleasant place of work cooks can enjoy. Another milestone to make us all proud, as we keep on working together to make again another technology transition to electric cooking.

Schools Remain Open

There have been rumors that schools would close anytime soon due to the Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

President Museveni delivered a State of the Nation Address yesterday at Kololo Ceremonial grounds, following his recent inauguration for another 5-year term.

The speech focused on economic sovereignty and wealth creation. No mention of any health measures quieted all rumors that have been circulating lately.

Out team was visiting some of our participating schools, as usual, monitoring the correct use of the institutional improved cook stoves. And everyone looked safe, life goes on as normal. Another Friday for the beginning of school Term II.

The Daily Posho

Maize flour is used to make posho (also called ugali or nshima in some regions in Uganda) it does provide some limited nutritional value for schoolchildren, but its benefits and limitations depend on the type of flour and what other foods are eaten alongside it.

By itself it does not provide all the nutrients required for healthy growth. It is most beneficial when combined with protein-rich foods, vegetables, and, where possible, fortified ingredients.

Most schools serve it with red beans prepared in a tomato sauce. Together, posho and beans form a complementary meal because the protein in beans helps make up for some of the limitations of maize protein. This makes the meal more filling and nutritionally balanced than either food alone.

Term II Kicks Off

Today children are back in school. Term II has officially started today, running until Friday 21st of August for a total of 89 days.

We have been busy for the past 3 weeks repairing the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) as kitchens were quiet because of the holiday period. These repairs are free of cost to all schools, and have been taking place for the past 10 years.

But time is never enough tough! We have more work to do back in the office as 7 different IICS top rings are still awaiting for welding.

Thankfully the various IICS can still be used without the rings, and by the end of the week all work will finished.

Theft Protection

As we slowly help our participating schools upgrade their kitchen cooking appliances - now moving away from using institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) to electric induction cook stoves - the need to have a safe kitchen building is now a priority.

The value of the appliances is high. This incudes not only the induction cookers, but also a 20KVA voltage stabiliser (very expensive) special stainless steel saucepans, and various energy meters, making such installation a valuable pot for thieves.

Of course, risk is still there, but we feel more at ease now that schools are installing metal and window doors to the kitchen building. The image below shows the recent installation at one of our primary schools in Kampala. We are trying to work on the tidiness also!