**1. Introduction**

The burden of malnutrition, which includesunder- and over-nutrition, is an emerging crisis in developing countries. Adequate nutrition is vital for optimal growth, development, and general well-being, particularly of children and adolescents [1]. Availability of adequate nutrition, either at home or through the education system, contributes to thereduction of malnutrition, especially among children who attend school [2]. There is evidence that educational institutions in developing countries are grappling with malnutrition that could have far-reaching effects on the health of school-goers, ultimately compromising an entire generation's health. For example, in Africa chronic and acute under-nutrition and micronutrient deficiency of iron, iodine, zinc, and vitamin A persist among

children and adolescents, according to Gegios et al. [3]. Additionally, overweight and obesity have increasingly become epidemics in most countries [4]. All forms of malnutrition negatively impact the ability of children to stay in school and learn throughout the year, and a ffect health by creating deficiency diseases such as protein energy malnutrition, as well as predisposing children to chronic lifestyle diseasesin adulthood [5,6].

Schools provide a perfect opportunity for the prevention of malnutrition, as they provide the best access to a large number of people, including family and community members, school sta ff, and young people. In most developed countries with well-established school feeding programmes, such as Britain, France, the USA, and Italy, school meals and school feeding have been used as an e ffective mechanism to address child nutrition, education enrolment, school retention, and hygiene issues [7]. Additionally, they provide income-generation, employment, and economic integration benefits to the communities in which they are implemented [8]. This demonstrates that provision of food in the right portion sizes translates into improved nutrition, nutrition education, and adoption of health measures for the sustained provision of adequate quality, quantity, and composition of the meals and snacks provided [9]. Hence, there is a need for country-specific guidelines and menu designs thataddress the nutrition priorities of the target populations, and the objectives of the feeding programs [9].

In Kenya, students in boarding high schools are a vulnerable group as they depend on meals provided by the school as the main source of all their nutrient needs. Studies carried out in Kenya show that there are nolegislated or advised nutrition guidelines for use in school feeding programmes [10].Therefore, school feeding programmes in the country are guided by other factors, not necessarily nutrition guidelines. For example, onecurrent school feeding programme geographically targets regions with the highest poverty rates, the lowest education achievement rates, or the highest numbers ofchildren residing in highly marginalized areas, for provision of free food [10]. This is unfortunate because Kenya faces numerousnutrition deficienciesdue to inadequate protein, vitamin A, and iron intake [11] among children and adolescents. Eventually these mayinfluence children's cognitive development, lower school performance, limit adult productivity, reduce immunity, and eventually contribute to a high burden of morbidity and mortality [10].

The lack of an adequate school feeding policy and nutrition guidelines indicatesthe lack of adequate knowledge and precise benchmarking with regard to food rations, nutrient content, and feeding patterns when administering food to children and adolescents who attend school. Additionally it implies compromise in the provision of quality nutritious meals to school-going adolescents. Hence, there is a heavy reliance on the World Health Organization's (WHO's) recommendeddaily allowance (RDA) as itis an internationally accepted standard [11]. Therefore, the study investigated the nutrient quality, portion size, and suitability to meet health requirements of meals o ffered to students in Kenyan boarding high schools.
