A meal can make the difference between a child going to school and staying at home. By improving nutrition, school feeding programmes help children keep healthy, concentrate, do better academically and stay in school. For poor households, they provide an incentive to send their children to school and reduce the cost of doing so. They have the potential to improve equitable access and learning.

Education and nutrition reinforce each other

In 2025, our report, Learn to eat well, developed with the Research Consortium for School Health and Nutrition, examined links between education and nutrition across the life course. Adequate nutrition in early childhood supports brain development; food insecurity affects concentration and learning in school age and in adulthood. In turn, education helps people make informed dietary choices, improves maternal and child nutrition, and develops the professional and agricultural skills needed to transform food systems.

School meals are one practical way to connect these objectives, particularly when accompanied by nutrition education. The 2026 GEM Report further examined the impact of school feeding on education access and equity. A review of 38 studies in 25 countries found a 3% increase in enrolment and a 14% increase in mathematics scores, although effects on attendance and reading were limited.

Feeding programmes have also been found to increase educational attainment by up to half a year per USD 100 invested. An analysis in 14 countries, of which 9 in Africa, estimated that an annual investment of USD 11 billion in school feeding generated USD 156 billion in social benefits through improved lifetime productivity and health.

School meals are an equitable financing mechanism

By reducing household costs and supporting participation, school meals help redistribute resources towards children whose education is constrained by poverty. The 2026 GEM Report reviewed school meal policies across countries compiled on its PEER profiles. Globally, 84% of countries have school meal programmes, double the number of countries that did so 25 years ago. But less than a third of primary school students receive free or subsidized meals. Coverage is 27% in low-, 18% in lower-middle-, 39% in upper-middle- and 45% in high-income countries.

Number of countries with a school meal programme, 2000-2024

Programmes were then assessed in terms of coverage and volume alongside four other mechanisms in the Equitable Financing in Education index, which emphasizes that it is not sufficient for a programme simply to exist. Governments need to look into who receives school meals, of what quality and how regularly to make the most of their potential.

Countries’ stories show what is possible

The 2026 GEM Report shows that many countries that improved access since 2000 included school meals as part of a wider policy package.

• Rwanda scaled up its national school feeding programme in 2020/21 and 93% of primary school students were benefiting by 2022/23. Critically, the government covered 93% of the cost with its own funds, having tripled its contribution, while a directive in September 2022 capped parents’ contributions to reduce disparities and support vulnerable families.

• In Cambodia, feeding programmes including breakfast and a take-home ration for poor families with girls in grades 4 to 6 increased enrolment by 6% and 5% respectively and improved completion.
• In India, a 2001 directive ordered states to introduce midday meals in government primary schools, which were associated with a 13% increase in enrolment three years later.
• In Ghana, an evaluation in food-insecure districts found that school feeding improved attendance, especially for girls and disadvantaged children.
• In Mozambique a longitudinal assessment found that school meals had the strongest association with dropout reduction among the factors examined, including distance to school and textbook availability. Nevertheless, in 2025, its national programme still only reached fewer than one in 10 primary students.
• In Bolivia, progress in lower secondary completion formed part of a multisectoral approach combining school meals and cash transfers to lower economic and social barriers. Its National School Feeding Programme reached 87% of public schools by 2012.
• In China, a Nutrition Improvement Programme introduced in 2011 in deprived rural areas reached 42% of students by 2021, and increased enrolment by 10 percentage points.

Funding determines the impact

Still many governments, particularly in Africa, struggle to maintain programmes because of unreliable funding. Nigeria launched a pilot programme in 12 states in 2004, which was discontinued within two years because of funding shortfalls. Relaunched nationally in 2016, it expanded from 1 million students in 2017 to almost 10 million in 2022. Yet irregular budget flows and financial management challenges have continued to affect implementation. Across western Africa, despite increased political recognition of school feeding’s benefits, many countries cannot allocate sufficient resources. The withdrawal of United States funding from programmes in the region in 2025 made this challenge more acute, for instance in Mali.

Some have developed alternative financing approaches. Bolivia raises funds through a hydrocarbon tax, Guatemala earmarks a portion of value-added tax revenues, and Tanzania combines grants, loans and carbon credits to support healthier meals and clean energy.

What should change after 2030?

School feeding brings education, health and social protection together. However, governments need to:

• close the gap between policy and implementation;
• secure predictable financing; and
• monitor and provide effective oversight, including of meal quality.

The issue of school meal quality is becoming increasingly important. Expanding provision must go hand in hand with ensuring that meals meet children’s nutritional needs. Small wins are happening on this front, with the United Kingdom tightening school food standards last month, regulating fried foods and sugary deserts, and the state of Maharashtra in India banning junk food in and around schools this August.

With programmes already present in most countries, the foundations exist. The next step is to ensure that more children can count on a nutritious meal as part of their school day.