Publications and resources

The school meals programme in Milan aims to provide each school day an educational meal (good, healthy and sustainable) to all children in the public schools in order to develop good food habits and sustainable lifestyles for their lifespan. Via the design of sustainable and healthy meals, the city strives to ensure concrete transformative changes towards a more sustainable urban food system. The goal of the service is to satisfy the needs of all its users, as well as to promote the food policy guidelines related to healthy and sustainable diets, among other stakeholders such as families, teachers, suppliers, and the broader Milanese community. Integral to this vision are food and nutritional security, food quality, the environment, health and safety in the workplace, transparency, and sustainability.

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. 

Coalition partner World Vision undertook a School Meals Child-led Research project ahead of the School Meals Coalition Summit in Brazil, 18-19 September 2025, where over 1,000 children in 13 countries shared their school meals experience. These findings are available in this Global Report, and 13 Country-Level Reports: Brazil, Cambodia, Dominican Republic, Ghana, Guatemala, Lebanon, Indonesia, Malawi, Peru, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The Global Evidence Brief 2025 highlights how governments are using research to strengthen and expand school meal programmes, with findings from over 55 national case studies and 15 value-for-money analyses. Drawing on contributions from a Global Academy of 1,200 experts across 124 countries, the brief shows how school meals support progress in education, nutrition, health, food systems and climate action, and outlines future research priorities to guide policymaking worldwide.

This joint civil society statement, issued ahead of the 2nd Global Summit, articulates the collective priorities and recommendations of the School Meals Coalition’s civil society network. It calls on governments, donors and partners to accelerate efforts to ensure every child can access nutritious school meals by 2030, emphasizing strengthened accountability, inclusion, voice of children, and collaboration across sectors and regions. The statement frames civil society’s role in supporting transparency, monitoring and advocacy to complement government action and drive progress.

The 4th Annual Statement of the Research Consortium for School Health and Nutrition expands the global evidence base on school meals and explores its implications for policy. Prepared as an input to the School Meals Coalition for parliamentarians and policymakers, it aims to strengthen the reach, quality and comprehensiveness of national school meal programmes towards 2030. The statement draws on the Consortium’s Global Academy network of over 1,200 experts across 120 countries, offering insights to guide decision-making and accelerate progress.

The State of School Feeding Worldwide is the United Nations’ official reporting mechanism on school meals, produced biennially by the World Food Programme, as a flagship publication, as secretariat of the School Meals Coalition. It presents the most comprehensive global assessment of how countries support their children through effective school meal programmes worldwide, highlighting trends in coverage, financing, policies and impact.

The 2024 edition reveals unprecedented expansion, with 466 million children now reached worldwide—80 million more since 2020. It highlights governments’ investments of US$84 billion annually, evidence of multisectoral impacts across education, health, nutrition, jobs and food systems, and the role of the School Meals Coalition in driving progress. This edition also highlights a clear shift: school meals are no longer just seen as a donor-driven priority but as a nationally owned and powerful policy lever. Around the world, governments are elevating school health and nutrition in their agendas—recognising school meals as a smart investment in children’s futures and stronger food systems.

The report draws on draws on the best available data sources to present a global picture of school meals coverage, implementation practices, emerging research and costs of school-based health and nutrition programmes from direct government reporting, global surveys, WFP estimates and World Bank data.

This report quantifies the multi-sectoral costs and benefits of Namibia’s National School Feeding Programme (NSFP), including its home-grown pilot model. Findings show NSFP beneficiaries complete 0.8 more years of education and experience improved health, with around 700 anaemia cases averted per 1,000 children over seven years. The programme yields a high return: every NAD 1 invested generates NAD 10–14 in long-term benefits. The HGSF model further supports local farmers and vendors, offering an added transfer of NAD 285 per child per year.

This case study documents the evolution of Bangladesh’s school meals programme, from emergency distribution of fortified biscuits to the introduction of diversified meals including cooked food. It explores the programme’s objectives, coverage, procurement models and monitoring systems, while outlining the challenges of scale-up, cost, and sustainability. The study highlights the 2019 national policy, multisectoral coordination efforts, and the upcoming government school feeding programme (2024–2027) aiming to reach 3.46 million children with a mixed menu model.

Fahmida Akter, Chowdhury Mufad Ahmed, Abu Ahmed Shamim.