School Feeding Programs

Decades before the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were instituted to achieve universal primary education and reduced poverty, hunger, and malnutrition, many countries had [Page 1373]school feeding programs (SFPs) to address some of these challenges. School feeding occurs when school pupils are provided some form of meals at some point during the school day or their families are provided with food rations. SFPs are popular, multipurpose, propoor policy interventions that focus on attaining one or more of these goals: educational outcomes (enrollment, attendance and retention), food security and improvement in local agriculture, improvement in child health, and provision of social safety nets to less endowed families. This entry discusses the nature and rationale of SFPs, the pervasiveness of such programs, and their impacts and associated challenges.

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