After coronavirus lockdowns and the economic blowback from the war in Ukraine, school meals have rebounded sharply and are today reaching a record number of young students worldwide.
Yet even as many governments strengthen their commitments to school meals, some of the poorest are struggling to finance them. Donor funding is patchy and realizing a 2030 goal – that every young student gets at least one nutritious meal during schooldays – remains daunting.
This mixed report card backdrops the first international meeting of the School Meals Coalition in Paris Wednesday (18 October). Hosted by France, the two-day summit gathers representatives from 55 countries, including heads of state and local governments, lawmakers and key Coalition drivers, including the World Food Programme (WFP).
“The conversation in Paris is going to be about we move the agenda forward – how to scale up programmes to reach all the children in the world,” says Carmen Burbano, Director of WFP’s School Feeding Unit.
For the poorest countries, however, struggling to meet massive development demands with shoe-string budgets: “We still don’t have the financing solution that meets the challenge,” Burbano says.
These and other issues will be up for discussion this week through the Coalition – a two-year-old network that has grown to more than 90 member states and 100-plus partner organizations.
Breaking the hunger cycle
Today, authorities are earmarking billions more dollars for school meals than just a few years ago; low-income countries alone have seen a 15 percent spending boost.
Roughly 418 million schoolchildren worldwide now benefit from school meals – 30 million more than during pre-COVID-19 days. But millions more are still denied access – demanding major efforts to realize the Coalition’s 2030 goal of feeding all 724 million students who need them.
“If I were the Prime Minister, I would give children food three times a day: before they start their classes, at break time, and after school before they go home,” says Solomon, a young learner in Haiti. “Because when they get home, they may not find any food and spend the whole day hungry.”
Students like Solomon count among 20 million children eating WFP school meals in 74 countries – in programmes in which governments are the main drivers. The paybacks are multiple; school meals support agriculture, health, nutrition and education among other sectors, with every dollar invested delivering US$9 in returns.
Source: wfp.org
