In his February State of the Nation Address, President Cyril Ramaphosa committed to eradicating stunting by 2030, recognising that what children eat in their earliest years determines not just how they grow, but how they learn, develop and contribute to society. It is a commitment that reflects the urgency of the data.
In South Africa, more than one in four children under five show signs of stunting, when a child is too short for their age due to insufficient nutrition, care or health support in early childhood. The consequences reach far beyond physical growth. According to the 2024 Thrive by Five Index, moderately or severely stunted four-year-olds are, on average, five months behind their peers in early learning, while even mild stunting is linked to measurable developmental delays.
Among children enrolled in ECD programmes, around 7% show signs of moderate or severe stunting, with a further 25% showing signs of mild stunting, a reminder that even within structured settings, nutrition remains a critical and often under-resourced challenge.
For many ECDs, food is one of the largest and most unpredictable costs of running a centre, but also one of the most visible drivers of quality, parent trust and enrolment. To help the women entrepreneurs on our Accelerator Programme make better everyday decisions around food, IMBE launched a pilot of its Nutriwallet Programme last August, onboarding 475 ECDs serving over 15,000 children in low-income communities in Gauteng.
Small changes, meaningful gains
The programme is designed to make healthy choices easier and more affordable by offering cashback to practitioners when they buy protein-rich staples. Alongside this, meal plans, menus, recipes and hands-on guidance help them introduce small, practical changes that improve both nutrition and cost management.
IMBE has been tracking how these ECD owners use the programme and what they buy. Early findings are already offering useful insights into their purchasing behaviour. While chicken, maize-meal and rice are the most commonly purchased items and contribute the most to costs, more affordable, protein-rich staples such as soup mix, beans and tinned fish are gaining in popularity. Across all recommended items, the average best-buy spend sits at around R70 per child per month.
Thulisile Ngubane of Wanda Day Care knows the financial pressure well. “I try to buy chicken but in some months I am unable to, depending on whether parents pay their fees on time or in full. I still need to pay teachers, cover other expenses and buy food, so I often have to cut back, and it’s usually expensive food items that go first.” The programme introduced her to healthy alternatives that cost less. “I now serve the soup mix at my ECD and it’s very tasty.” She has also introduced a second daily snack, a simple adjustment with real benefits for the children in her care.
For Dipuo Mokoena of Small Talk Day Care, the change has been eye-opening. “The way I was usually preparing food, I was looking for meals that would give children energy and strength. That was my main focus. With the help of the IMBE Nutriwallet Programme, I am now able to balance my meals, balancing my starch with my vegetables properly. I can also see how I am saving and where my money is going.”
When better meals lead to better businesses
The data also highlights just how constrained smaller centres are. Those with fewer than 20 children spend nearly three times more per child on food than larger ECDs with 50 or more children. The difference is stark with a per-child cost of R176 per child per month against R58. This is largely because they lack the economies of scale that make bulk buying viable. Nutriwallet helps close that gap by making healthier choices easier to manage financially. And when nutrition improves, parents notice. In this sense, it becomes a business lever that can boost retention, reputation and word-of-mouth referrals.
Patience Xaba of Motheo Day Care has seen this first-hand. “Lately, parents have been surprised, asking ‘What are you doing with our children?’ And I tell them: ‘The menu is doing its job,’ and they are happy”.
Nwabisa Silwane of Sisonke Early Learning Centre agrees. Her children love the apple and amasi smoothie recipe, and the results speak for themselves. “I have seen big changes in the children since I joined the IMBE Nutriwallet Programme. Some of them have even gained weight.”
At the centre of the programme is Nutribucks, a cashback mechanism that rewards practitioners for purchasing nutritious staples. Thulisile received over R300 at the end of last year and R100 more recently. Nwabisa earned back around R600 last month and used it to reinvest directly in the programme’s recommended food items, proof that with the right incentives, good food choices and sound financial management can go hand in hand.
A model worth scaling
What our research shows is that nutrition cannot be separated from the realities of running an ECD. Food is one of the biggest costs these businesses face, but managed well, it can also become one of the most powerful tools they have, improving child outcomes while strengthening financial sustainability.
The Gauteng pilot represents just 8% of the 5,730 ECDs IMBE already supports nationally, signalling significant room for expansion. Our goal is to scale the Nutriwallet Programme into other provinces such as KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape, building on what has been tested and adapting the model for different contexts and communities. The aim is to reach more practitioners and build partnerships needed to extend the programme. In doing so, IMBE can support stronger, more sustainable ECD businesses and ensure more children have access to the nutrition they need to learn, grow and flourish.
