The State of School Feeding Worldwide: Progress and Challenges

Global School Meal Coverage Expansion

• 📈 466 million children are currently receiving meals in schools globally, marking the largest food assistance program for children worldwide.
• 🚀 An unprecedented 80 million additional children have gained access to school meals since 2020, a scale-up not seen in at least a decade.
• 🌍 Approximately 60% of this expansion occurred in low-income countries, demonstrating significant government commitment despite financial hardships.
• 🌍 Africa shows impressive progress, with over 20 million additional children receiving meals, highlighted by success stories in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Rwanda.

Funding and Government Investment

• 💰 Global funding for school meals has surged from $43 billion in 2020 to $84 billion, with 99% of this investment originating from government budgets.
• 🏛️ This indicates school meal programs are a global priority backed by governments, not primarily donor-reliant efforts.
• 🤝 The School Meals Coalition, launched in 2021, has mobilized over 100 countries at the presidential level to commit to providing healthy meals in schools.

Gaps and Future Imperatives

• ⚠️ Despite progress, only 30% of children in low-income countries have access to school meal programs, compared to 80% in high-income countries.
• ⚖️ There's a call for governments to expand access, as it's unsustainable and unacceptable for the most vulnerable children to have the least access.

Key Benefits of School Meals

• 🧠 School children's well-being is critical for learning outcomes, a fact increasingly recognized by governments as a key leverage for education spending.
• 🍎 School meals are identified as one of the best ways to establish good dietary preferences for life, contributing to human health and planetary health.
• 🌱 By influencing dietary choices, school meals can support regenerative and agroecological approaches to farming and improve soil health.
• 🛡️ In crisis situations, such as in Ukraine, school meal programs have proven vital for ensuring children are fed despite widespread disruption.

Report Scope and Partnerships

• 🗺️ The report includes data from 174 countries, covering high, middle, and low-income nations, including the United States and most of Europe.
• 🤝 Civil society, NGOs, and community organizations play a crucial role in supporting operational delivery, providing technical assistance, and sharing best practices.
• 🌍 The African Union's Malibu Declaration (2004) emphasized homegrown school feeding as essential for investing in children's futures and supporting local agriculture.