Platform for African – European Partnership in Agricultural Research for Development

Tuesday, February 4, 2025

Third School Meal Programs Around the World Report

Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF). (2024) School Meal Programs Around the World: Results from the 2024 Global Survey of School Meal Programs, 121 pp.

The third round of the Global Survey of School Meal Programs © was conducted by the Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF) in 2024, gathering information on the school year beginning in 2022. The survey saw participation from 142 countries and collected detailed data on 207 large-scale school meal programs. Survey results are presented in the School Meal Programs Around the World report and summarized in the Survey Highlights.


4 February 2025
Third School Meal Programs Around the World Report

School meal programs are an effective way to boost children’s nutrition and wellbeing, including physiological development and academic performance. These programs can also play an important role in food systems transformation by ensuring access to healthy diets, supporting equitable livelihoods, and contributing to environmental sustainability. However, data on large-scale school meal programs have historically been fragmented and inconsistent, despite the global prevalence of these programs and evidence of their positive impact. 

The Global Survey of School Meal Programs © seeks to address this gap, collecting the most comprehensive data to date on national and large-scale school feeding programs, with information on 167 countries. It provides comprehensive global data on school meal coverage, financing, food baskets, laws and policies, home-grown school feeding, and more, thus serving as a foundation for monitoring global progress over time.


Introductory Remarks

  • Purnima Menon, Senior Director, Food and Nutrition Policy; Acting Senior Director, Transformation Strategy, IFPRI
  • Mary Muinde, Chief of Staff to the First Lady of Kenya
  • Fabio Veras Soares, Researcher, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Development, Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPCid/IPEA), Government of Brazil
  • Neo Sediti, Director, National School Nutrition Programme, Government of the Republic of South Africa
  • Dana Thomas, Managing Director, Food is Medicine, The Rockefeller Foundation

Overview of Survey Results

  • Arlene Mitchell, Executive Director, Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF)
  • Liliane Bigayimpunzi, Survey Coordinator for Africa, Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF)
  • Ayala Wineman, Research and Survey Specialist, Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF)

Panel: Putting the Survey Results into Use- Policy, Research, Advocacy, Implementation and the Business Perspective 

  • Marie Tamagnan, Senior Operations Advisor, Inter-American Development Bank (IADB)
  • Mduduzi Mbuya, Director, Knowledge Leadership, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN)
  • Beatrice Wamey, President, Nascent Solutions
  • Mia Blakstad, Social Protection Specialist, The World Bank
  • Carmen Burbano, Director of School Meals and Social Protection, UN World Food Program (WFP) and Director of the School Meals Coalition Secretariat

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES 

Co-organized by IFPRI and The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) research consortium

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