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School meal programs are an effective way to boost children’s nutrition and wellbeing, including physiological development and academic performance. These programs can also play an important role in food systems transformation by ensuring access to healthy diets, supporting equitable livelihoods, and contributing to environmental sustainability. However, data on large-scale school meal programs have historically been fragmented and inconsistent, despite the global prevalence of these programs and evidence of their positive impact. The Global Survey of School Meal Programs © seeks to address this gap, collecting the most comprehensive data to date on national and large-scale school feeding programs, with information on 167 countries. It provides comprehensive global data on school meal coverage, financing, food baskets, laws and policies, home-grown school feeding, and more, thus serving as a foundation for monitoring global progress over time.

The Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF) and IFPRI invite you to the official launch of the third Global Survey report, School Meal Programs Around the World, 2024 edition, with results from the 2022 school year. The survey is implemented by GCNF, with funding from USDA and The Rockefeller Foundation and expert input from IFPRI and other lead researchers and organizations.  The resulting data provide governments and other stakeholders with an up-to-date global database of standardized information on school meal programs to make informed decisions. 

Following introductory remarks on the contribution of school meals to nutrition and other food system outcomes, GCNF and IFPRI will present results from the latest survey, which concluded in August 2024, and a distinguished panel of experts will discuss implications of the survey for policy, research, advocacy, implementation, and business. Highlights of the 2024 survey results are already available in English and six other languages on GCNF’s website here. The full report, School Meal Programs Around the World, 2024 edition, and additional resources will be released on the day of the event.

IFPRI and GCNF are long-time collaborators on this important topic. On January 28th, GCNF will also join IFPRI’s Policy Seminar: School Meals in the 21st century: New Challenges and Evidence.  Register for that event here.

Introductory Remarks

• Purnima Menon, Senior Director, Food and Nutrition Policy; Acting Senior Director, Transformation Strategy, IFPRI
• Fabio Veras Soares, Researcher, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Development, Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPCid/IPEA), Government of Brazil 
• Dana Thomas, Managing Director, Food is Medicine, The Rockefeller Foundation

Overview of Survey Results

• Arlene Mitchell, Executive Director, Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF)
• Liliane Bigayimpunzi, Survey Coordinator for Africa, Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF)
• Ayala Wineman, Research and Survey Specialist, Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF)

Panel: Putting the Survey Results into Use- Policy, Research, Advocacy, Implementation and the Business Perspective 

• Marie Tamagnan, Senior Operations Advisor, Inter-American Development Bank (IADB)
• Mduduzi Mbuya, Director, Knowledge Leadership, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN)
• Beatrice Wamey, President, Nascent Solutions 
• Radha Karnad, Director – Child Health & Development, Africa, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF)
• Carmen Burbano, Director of School Meals and Social Protection, UN World Food Program (WFP) and Director of the School Meals Coalition Secretariat

Closing Remarks

• Catherine Bertini, former Executive Director, UN World Food Program (WFP)

Moderator

• Aulo Gelli, Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI