Blog post- Policy Strategies for Building Sustainable Home-Grown School Feeding Initiatives, Empowering Communities and Bolstering Local Food Systems
This is an excerpt of a blog post written by Garima Bhalla, FAO Economist, together with Israel Klug, FAO Programme Officer, Joy Mulema, FAO Representation Coordination in Kenya, and research partners at the University of Kenya. You can access the complete version of the article at Socialprotection.org.
School feeding programs reach 418 million children worldwide, making them one of the most widely used social protection programs. Despite the scale, coverage gaps remain as only 18 per cent of children in low-income countries receive a daily, nutritious meal in school. The primary goals of school meals programs are to increase school enrollment, retention, and address hunger and malnutrition by supplementing children's food intake. This is especially beneficial for girls who are experience structural discrimination and disadvantages and often have less access to education and health services. Additionally, home-grown school feeding programs purchase foods from local smallholder farmers and provide it to schoolchildren. When designed as 'home-grown,' they can enhance agricultural value chains development and contribute to changes in food systems, encouraging local food production and creating jobs both on and off the farm along the food supply chains. By sourcing foods from local smallholders, these programs provide small-scale farmers with a more favorable market, offering greater certainty regarding market access and terms of trade. Furthermore, such initiatives can support climate-smart agriculture when designed to complement sustainable agricultural policies and programs.
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