Case study: Costa Rica’s school child and adolescent food and nutrition programme

Costa Rica’s School Child and Adolescent Food and Nutrition Programme (PANEA) is an example of a consolidated school feeding programme mostly funded by the central government and managed at school level by School Education Boards. It is part of the government’s efforts to reduce poverty and to ensure poor families’ children’s enrolment and retention within the education system, and its main service is the School Canteen. The programme also provides subsidies for agricultural production projects (school gardens); and didactic materials and training to run school gardens and health and nutrition education in pre-primary, primary and secondary schools.