School lunch goes local: home-grown procurement models deliver big returns in Africa
71.5 million African students are nourished by daily school meals. Home-grown school feeding (HGSF) programmes link these meals to smallholder farmers and local communities, yielding a ripple effect of increasing benefits.
- food security
- gender and food security
- India
- nutrition
School lunch goes local: home-grown procurement models deliver big returns in Africa
71.5 million African students are nourished by daily school meals. Home-grown school feeding (HGSF) programmes link these meals to smallholder farmers and local communities, yielding a ripple effect of increasing benefits.
Each March, the African Union recognizes the importance of school meals as the largest social safety net programme, contributing to education, child wellbeing, food security, and equity. Overall, for every USD $1 invested in school feeding, a return of USD $35 can be generated, impacting sectors such as agriculture, environment, education, health and nutrition, and social protection. Positive returns across sectors are especially high in home-grown school feeding (HGSF) programmes, which can add an additional boost to nutrition, women’s and girls’ empowerment and climate resilience.
HGSF constitutes a school feeding model that is designed to provide children in schools with safe, diverse and nutritious food, sourced locally from smallholders. In Africa, an increased number of governments are introducing the model; a relevant example being West Africa where it has been adopted by all countries.