This publication was originally posted by the International Parliamentary Network for Education.
School meal programmes are a proven and scalable way of supporting children’s health, improving their education and providing an essential safety net by protecting household incomes.
School meal programmes also have benefits for agriculture, climate, social cohesion and gender equality.
As a result, well-design school meal programmes are one of the most impactful and efficient interventions and can contribute directly to the achievement of at least nine of the Sustainable Development Goals; catalysing progress on poverty (SDG1), hunger and all forms of malnutrition (SDG2), health (SDG3), education (SDG4), gender equality (SDG5), sustainable consumption and production (SDG12), climate action (SDG13), peaceful and inclusive societies (SDG 16) and partnerships (SDG17).
Growing parliamentary support for school meals
Today 97 countries have joined the School Meals Coalition and are committed to harnessing the power of school meals and ensuring that every child receives a nutritious meal at school, every day by 2030.
Key to achieving this will be increasing parliamentary knowledge of and commitment to the creation, expansion and improvement of school meal programmes.
As a result, the International Parliamentary Network for Education with the support of the World Food Programme and Research Consortium for School Health and Nutrition, produced ‘School meals: A toolkit for parliamentarians’.
The toolkit provides members of parliament with the evidence to make the case for school meals along with actionable advice and guidance.