Universal free school meals: the future of school meals programmes?

School meal programmes create one of the world's most extensive social safety nets, with 83% of countries providing school meals to an estimated 418 million children daily. But this ubiquity conceals inequity; on average, 41% of the world's primary schoolchildren are fed, with coverage at about 61% in high-income countries but only 18% in low-income countries where food is needed most.2 When schools closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, hundreds of millions of children worldwide lost access to school meals, and food insecurity rates increased by about 17% worldwide, particularly affecting children in lower-income countries. These school closures also highlighted the value of school meal programmes as an investment in students' physical, mental, and cognitive health, refocusing attention on the barriers to receiving school meals, especially stigma when free meals are only available to children from lower-income households.

Cohen, Juliana F W et al.
The Lancet, Volume 402, Issue 10405, 831 - 833