Publications and resources

France has a comprehensive national school meal system aimed at meeting children's nutritional needs while promoting healthy eating habits, cultural awareness, environmental responsibility, and food waste reduction. School meals are managed by local authorities and follow strict nutritional guidelines. Since 2022, the EGAlim law has encouraged the use of sustainable and organic food products. Although the regulatory framework is strong, enforcement and monitoring remain limited, resulting in uneven compliance.

The City School Meals Case Study of Montpellier serves to document how the municipal school meals programme is organized, funded, and monitored throughout the city. The objectives of this case study include presenting an introduction to the city profile, outlining the design and implementation of school feeding programmes, describing their monitoring and evaluation processes, and highlighting lessons learned, best practices, and challenges. 

At its core, the School Meals Programme aims to improve school attendance, retention and learning outcomes by reducing short-term hunger and enhancing learners’ ability to concentrate and participate effectively in class. More broadly, the Home Grown School Meals programme seeks to achieve multiple, interrelated objectives across the education, nutrition, agriculture and social protection sectors,

The objectives of this case study include presenting an introduction to the country profile, outlining the design and implementation of school feeding programmes, describing their monitoring and evaluation processes, and highlighting lessons learned, best practices, and challenges.

Spain's school meal programs focus on improving children's health through healthy and sustainable diets, with a particular emphasis on preventing obesity. They promote nutrition education, the use of local, seasonal, and organic foods, and equitable access to quality meals that accommodate diverse needs. Beyond nutrition, school meals also support education, social inclusion, and work-family balance.

Universal free school meal policies aim to improve student well-being by expanding meal access for all children regardless of income. While evidence supports increased participation in meal programs, research on educational outcomes remains limited. This study evaluated the impact of universal free school meal policies on chronic absenteeism, academic performance, graduation rates, and dropout rates in the U.S.

Explore a toolkit by the Sustainable Finance Initiative of the School Meals Coalition for governments, agencies, and stakeholders to finance social programmes and improve health tax design and implementation. This toolkit brings tax and spending together. Exploring the connections, considerations and pros and cons of using revenue to finance social programmes, like school meals, helps to facilitate joined-up policymaking, which is increasingly important for governments to solve the complex problems of today.

Cameroon, like many other countries, has adopted School Meals Programmes las a safety net to support education, food and nutrition security, social inclusion, and agricultural and economic development. While this reflects growing recognition of school feeding as a policy tool, the scale and coverage of programmes remain limited. In 2025, the National School Feeding Strategy was adopted to provide strategic guidance and a clearer framework for the development and coordination of such initiatives.

The objectives of this case study include presenting an introduction to the country profile, outlining the design and implementation of school feeding programmes, describing their monitoring and evaluation processes, and highlighting lessons learned, best practices, and challenges. 

The National School Feeding Programme (NSFP) in Lesotho was initiated in 1961 in ten primary schools in Maseru District with support from Save the Children. It was scaled up nationally in 1965 with assistance from the World Food Programme (WFP), eventually covering all public primary schools. Following the introduction of Free Primary Education (FPE) in 2000, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) committed to providing daily meals to primary school pupils to improve their concentration and learning outcomes, contributing to a 12.6% increase in primary school enrolment. In 2015, the Government of Lesotho, with WFP support, adopted a National School Feeding Policy aimed at ensuring sustainable, nutritious meals for all primary school learners every school day, sourced from local producers and fully implemented by national actors. While the programme is coordinated and funded centrally by the MOET, District School Feeding Committees support community participation at the school level.

The objectives of this case study include presenting an introduction to the country profile, outlining the design and implementation of school feeding programmes, describing their monitoring and evaluation processes, and highlighting lessons learned, best practices, and challenges. 

This study looks at the cost-benefit analysis of Niger’s National School Feeding Program (PAS), which provides nutritious meals to primary school children. It quantifies the programme’s multisectoral benefits, including improved educational outcomes, better health and nutrition, and reduced rates of anaemia. The programme also generates substantial social protection benefits by lowering household food expenditures and stimulates local economic development through the procurement of locally sourced food. 

Overall, the analysis demonstrates that the programme delivers a strong return on investment, generating significant benefits across the education, health, nutrition, social protection, and agricultural sectors.