Lunch Matters: How school meals enhance nutrition, education and agrobiodiversity in Africa

According to the latest estimates, 45 million children under the age of five suffer from severe malnutrition, leaving lasting impacts on their health. However, school feeding programs offer hope, as existing initiatives show clear benefits for children’s nutrition, while also providing valuable environmental, social, economic and even cultural benefits. Here we take case studies from school meal programs in Rwanda, Benin, Burkina Faso and Kenya to explore how the various benefits were achieved and the lasting impact it brought to communities, followed by an overview of remaining challenges to upscaling school feeding to achieve these benefits across the world.