School meals can become a powerful driver of food-system transformation

Every day, millions of children sit down to a meal at school. Often, that meal is taken as an intervention towards better nutrition, improved education or social protection. While this is key, school feeding programmes can also be a lever for transforming food systems.

Across Africa, about 71.5 million students receive daily school meals. Globally, government-led programmes reach more than 466 million children, according to the World Food Programme (WFP).

These programmes represent one of the largest and most direct points at which public policy meets food production, markets, nutrition and human development.

The question, therefore, is not just whether children are being fed; it is about the kind of food system that each meal helps to build. And this matters because the world faces a paradox.

While enormous quantities of food are produced globally, millions of people can barely afford or access healthy diets.

At the same time, farmers face climate shocks, volatile markets and declining agricultural diversity, while many nutritious indigenous, Neglected and Underutilised Species (NUS) remain economically marginal.

Nutritional quality

At the intersection of these challenges in Kenya and across the world are school meals.