How expanding school meal programs shape global child health and education?

School meal schemes in the world have experienced significant expansion in both size and budgets over the period of 2020-2025. The most recent report of the World Food Programme released in September 2025 shows that 466 million children today are receiving school meals as a result of government-led efforts. This is a 20 percent increase since 2020 that signifies an increment of almost 80 million children. Contrary to previous models which depended on foreign aid, this growth has been driven by domestic investment, and 99 percent of the financing an estimated 84 billion in 2024 has been made up of national budgets, compared to 43 billion in 2020.

African countries have become the major drivers of this development. Countries like Kenya, Ethiopia, Madagascar and Rwanda have increased their school feeding programs to cover almost 20 million more children. Much of this has been due to the joint efforts of the School Meals Coalition, a network of 100 plus governments and 140 plus partner organizations. This coalition has attempted to institutionalize school feeding as a long term policy agenda, not a humanitarian intervention in the short run.

School meals’ impact on child nutrition and learning

The school lunch programs are no longer limited to food value but have become the keys in the education development. According to the results of the WFP 2025, the learning outcomes of children have improved greatly, especially in math and literacy. The findings demonstrate the importance of school meals in resolving the learning crisis around the world by improving concentration and cognitive growth, especially in early childhood.

Remarkably, compared to other institutional learning measures, including teacher education and online learning platforms, school meal programs are more cost-effective. They not just enhance school attendance and enrollment but also classroom performance rendering them vital to strategies that are to be employed to enhance the quality of learning.

Gender equality and health outcomes

School meal programs have produced disproportionately high benefits to girls, especially when the in-school meals are combined with take-home rations. These two interventions have increased by 12 percent girls enrollment and retention in sub-Saharan Africa. They have also helped in curbing prevalence of anemia and teenage dropouts particularly in parts of the world such as Northern Uganda and Madagascar where adolescent girls are highly vulnerable to both health and education.

School meals are means of promoting gender equality in education, health, and general human development by tackling both short-term and long-term issues.

Strengthening local economies and sustainable food systems

School meal programs are an added value to the local economies. These programs worldwide have created between 7.4 million jobs on an average scale and these are food producers, cooks, warehouse managers and transport workers. Local sourcing of food through school meal programs boost the agricultural supply chains and smallholder farmers especially those in the rural regions where jobs are limited.

School feeding models that are home-grown and focus on sustainable agriculture and dietary diversity are on the rise. These strategies are less reliant on food imports, enhance climate-resistant agricultural systems, and establish food sovereignty at the national level. School meals can be useful in the process of harmonizing the objectives of education, health and environment, as nutrition delivery is closely connected to the concept of local food systems.

Environmental sustainability and resilience

School meal programs are interventions that are eco-friendly in the context of climate change and vulnerable ecosystems. They also cut down carbon emissions by sourcing locally, and minimise packaging waste and encourage environmentally friendly diets. Such practices are also in line with other agendas in the world like the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs), especially on zero hunger, quality education and climate action.

School meal programs coupled with environmental stewardship are also known to create awareness to both students and communities thereby, becoming the central source of behavioral change and climate resilience at the grassroots level.

Resilience in crisis and path to national ownership

School meal programs have grown to be more and more frontline instruments in crisis mitigation. In times of uncertainty, be it conflict, pandemic, or natural disasters they serve as a shock absorber to the frail societies. School meals are the only sure form of daily food to many children. They discourage school dropouts in times of crisis, lower the chances of children being employed in the labor force, and postpone early marriages particularly among the girls in weak environments.

This was seen during the COVID-19 pandemic and serves in 2025 in different conflict-affected areas as their social safety nets. School meals guarantee continued access to education and health services even in a period of broader disruption of the services.

Transition to national ownership

One of the fundamental objectives of the WFP and its partners has involved transformation of school meal programs into systems of national governance instead of donor-funded initiatives. A successful transition to fully domestically financed and controlled programs has been made in countries such as Armenia, Benin and Iraq. These are illustrations that despite the limited resources, countries can formalize school meals as long-term national development policies.

WFP has been offering technical assistance, policy guidance and operational support to nations that seek such transitions. This is aimed at guaranteeing continuation of programs and subsequent effectiveness and attention to wider national education and health systems.

Global endorsement and future direction

A UN representative recently pointed out the transformational power of school meals by saying, school meals provide a strong, well educated and a prosperous future, as children grow strong, learn well and thrive. This is the wording of the statement posted on the official UN site; it is the world consensus on the role of school feeding as a social development and child welfare measure.

The increased commitment by countries to scale up these programs supported by real investment and institutional change- is part of the increased volume of recognition that child nutrition and education go hand in hand. School meals have become a place of convergence between policies on poverty, food systems, education and gender and are therefore essential tools in ensuring equitable development.

With the governments further expanding and optimizing the strategies of school meals, the emphasis is expected to shift to the area of innovation, quality improvement, and environmental congruence. These programs have the potential to be made universal primary schooling in both developing and middle-income countries with the momentum of the School Meals Coalition and multi-lateral assistance.

Their growth does not indicate only a larger meal coverage, but a change in policy priorities, in which investment in children is considered the basis of strong and successful societies. Regardless of whether it is in meeting short-term nutritional demands or in the development of long-term educational returns, school meal programmes are creating a future with no child left behind in either health or education.