370m school children fed daily in meals programmes worldwide

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations’ international agency overseeing global food security and agriculture, has said around 370 million children around the world are fed at school through school meals programmes that are run in varying degrees by national governments every day.

FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva
The agency disclosed this in a statement released recently to celebrate the International School Meals Day, a day that is set aside every year to remind governments around the world on the need to promote healthy eating habits for all children through sustainable policies, including sourcing food from family farmers.

The statement noted that the feeding programme differs from one country to the other. While Madagascar opted for beans and rice, Philippines serves spicy lentils and Jordan prefers vegetable pastries and fruit for its school meals programme. Other countries choose a healthy snack or take-home food such as vitamin A-enriched oil for the whole family.

FAO noted that school meals have proved successful in providing educational and health benefits to the most vulnerable children while also helping to boost school attendance. “Communities, particularly in rural areas, also benefit when family farmers and small and medium enterprises are the main source of healthy food for the schools.”

The statement added that “FAO believes that consistent global investments in school meals will lead to a generation of children who develop healthy eating habits and who benefit from a diverse diet. 

Ultimately this effort will contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger.
“FAO supports school meals in a range of ways including technical support to governments on sustainable agriculture, food safety and standards, support to family farmers to grow surplus harvests to sell to schools, public procurement regulations, nutritional and food guidelines and nutrition education activities.


“This month, FAO jointly presented the Home-Grown School Feeding Resource Framework, together with partners including the World Food Programme. The framework supports governments through the process of policy formulation, implementation and evaluation of school meals programmes. It also brings together the technical expertise of different stakeholders in a programmatic and coherent way to be easily accessed by countries requesting technical assistance. “



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