Publications and resources

The Invitation to Engage Overview and FAQ is a guide for countries considering partnership with the School Meals Accelerator. It explains the eligibility criteria, purpose, timeline, selection approach, and benefits of the process, while helping governments assess their readiness and ambitions for strengthening and scaling national school meals programmes.

Education Cannot Wait (ECW)’s report, Breaking Barriers: Understanding Educational Exclusion in Crises, finds 258 million school-aged children affected by crises. Of these, 93 million are out of school, while many enrolled children face conditions that limit learning and raise dropout risks. 

Early learning challenges are increasingly becoming access crises in adolescence. Evidence shows food insecurity (IPC Phase 2+) is linked to poorer learning outcomes, lower progression, and reduced secondary enrolment, especially in protracted crises. Evidence also shows that school feeding programmes help offset the effects of food insecurity, improving attendance and leading to measurable gains of 0.1–0.2 standard deviations in learning outcomes.

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 Global Education Monitoring Report highlights how equitable access to education depends on strong, long‑term policies that address both learning and the wider factors shaping children’s ability to attend school. 

School meal programmes are a proven, scalable solution at the heart of this progress, boosting enrolment, reducing gender and poverty‑related disparities, and supporting children’s health and learning outcomes. By linking education with social protection and nutrition, school meals exemplify the coherent, child‑focused policies that help countries sustain change over decades, ensuring every learner can participate, thrive, and build a more resilient future.