World Food Programme, WFP

This report contains four sections: Section I presents the introduction.

School feeding is increasingly recognised as a major investment in both human capital and in local economies which has accelerated country-led demand. It is seen as playing an important role not only in emergency contexts but also in social stability, peace-building and national development.

SABER–School Feeding (SABER-SF) is a useful approach to assessing the school feeding policy situation and systems in any country to identify the gaps and plan appropriate capacity development plans and/or road maps with the government and other stakeholders.

School meals have multiple benefits and there is hard evidence that supports this claim. However, due to the multi-faceted nature of school meals, it is difficult to obtain a complete overview of the evidence. This paper attempts to give such an overview.

School meals programmes have an important role to play in the fight against hunger and malnutrition. When appropriately designed, they have the potential to improve the diets and nutrition knowledge and practices of millions of schoolchildren and their communities.

This paper updates WFP’s 2009 school feeding policy four years after its approval. It clarifies WFP’s new approach of supporting government-led programmes, and outlines innovations.