Rethinking School Feeding

2010

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

School feeding programs (SFPs) are an important effort to address food insecurity, improve nutritional education, and ultimately improve health outcomes. The objective of this research was to describe the nutritional, cultural, food safety, and agro-family participation of SFPs in different countries and observe the SFP in low-middle and high-income countries to establish disparities. The study followed documentary research of SFP official online resources complemented by a literature review. The programs were assessed in four criteria: (1) nutritional aspects, (2) cultural aspects, (3) food safety, and (4) agro-family participation. Out of 192 countries registered, 117 countries (60.93%) have an SFP, and only 8 (4.16%) do not have SFPs. A total of 67 countries (34.89%) did not have an official online resource and did not respond to follow-up emails. Out of the 117 countries with SFP, all of them had a detailed description of their nutritional aspects, cultural aspects (11.96%), foo...

Food and nutrition bulletin, 2009

School-feeding programs are popular development assistance programs in developing countries but have previously had few sound, empirical analyses of their effectiveness and costs. The goals of this study were to provide a realistic estimate of the costs of school feeding and combine these estimates with outcome information to obtain the cost per outcome. Cost studies were conducted in three African countries by reviewing school-feeding costs provided by the World Food Programme and interviewing stakeholders in ministries of education and in the community. In another African country, existing costing information was used. To compare across the countries, costs were standardized for a 200-day school year, a 700-kcal per day ration, and when children were not fed. To obtain cost per outcome data, outcomes were obtained from a review of school-feeding studies. The cost of school feeding ranged from U.S. $28 to U.S. $63 per child per year (weighted mean cost of U.S. $40 per child per yea...

Frontiers in Public Health, 2020

Introduction: Globally, there are 370 million children receiving school meals every day. Coverage is least in low-income countries, where the need is greatest and where program costs are viewed as high in comparison with the benefits to public health alone. Here we explore the policy implications of including the returns of school feeding to other sectors in an economic analysis. Methods: We develop an economic evaluation methodology to estimate the costs and benefits of school feeding programs across four sectors: health and nutrition; education; social protection; and the local agricultural economy. We then apply this multi-sectoral benefit-cost analytical framework to school feeding programs in 14 countries (Botswana,

2018

Disease Control Priorities, Third Edition (Volume 8): Child and Adolescent Health and Development

2014