Robust school meals programs are one of the easiest ways for governments to help spur food systems reform, government and United Nations’ officials said Monday at the opening session at the U.N. Food Systems Summit stocktaking event in Rome.
Ensuring that children have access to a nutritious school meal each day provides a host of benefits for the child, society, and food systems, U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed told the session, which highlighted the School Meals Coalition led by the World Food Programme.
The coalition was created in 2021 at the inaugural U.N. Food Systems Summit to help governments provide food to all schoolchildren. She called school meals “the biggest public safety net that we have available to support future generations.”