Guyana's Hinterland Community-based School Feeding Program (SFP).

To assess the efficacy of a school-based intervention programme to reduce the prevalence of overweight in 6 to 10-year-old children. Cluster-randomized, controlled study. A total of 3135 boys and girls in grades 1-4 were included in the study. Ten schools were selected in Stockholm county area and randomized to intervention (n=5) and control (n=5) schools. Low-fat dairy products and whole-grain bread were promoted and all sweets and sweetened drinks were eliminated in intervention schools. Physical activity (PA) was aimed to increase by 30 min day(-1) during school time and sedentary behaviour restricted during after school care time. PA was measured by accelerometry. Eating habits at home were assessed by parental report. Eating disorders were evaluated by self-report. The prevalence of overweight and obesity decreased by 3.2% (from 20.3 to 17.1) in intervention schools compared with an increase of 2.8% (from 16.1 to 18.9) in control schools (P<0.05). The results showed no difference between intervention and controls, after cluster adjustment, in the longitudinal analysis of BMIsds changes. However, a larger proportion of the children who were initially overweight reached normal weight in the intervention group (14%) compared with the control group (7.5%), P=0.017. PA did not differ between intervention and control schools after cluster adjustment. Eating habits at home were found to be healthier among families with children in intervention schools at the end of the intervention. There was no difference between children in intervention and control schools in self-reported eating disorders. A school-based intervention can reduce the prevalence of overweight and obesity in 6 to 10-year-old children and may affect eating habits at home. The effect of the intervention was possibly due to its effect on healthy eating habits at school and at home rather than on increased levels of PA.

PROTOCOL: School feeding for improving the physical and psychosocial health of disadvantaged elementary school children

Ethiopia recently scaled up the implementation of a school feeding program (SFP) as a targeted intervention for protecting disadvantaged school children from hunger and food insecurity. However, the contribution of the program to advancing the nutritional status of children has not been adequately explored. We assessed the effect of SFP on the anthropometric and haemoglobin status of school children in Sidama Region, Southern Ethiopia. Our prospective cohort study compared the height-for-age z-score (HAZ), BMI-for-age z-score (BAZ) and haemoglobin concentration of SFP beneficiary (n 240) and non-beneficiary (n 240) children, 10-14 years of age. The children were recruited from 8 SFP implementing and 8 control schools using a multistage sampling procedure and were followed for an academic year. The SFP intervention and control schools were matched one-to-one based on agro ecological features and geographical proximity. Exposure, outcome and pertinent extraneous variables were collected through baseline and end-line surveys. Multilevel difference-in-differences (DID) analysis was used to measure the net effect on the outcomes of interest. In the multivariable DID model adjusted for potential confounders including maternal and paternal literacy, household monthly income, wealth index and household food insecurity, the SFP did not show significant effects on the haemoglobin concentration (β = 0⋅251, 95 % confidence interval (CI): -0⋅238, 0⋅739), BAZ (β = 0⋅121, 95 % CI: -0⋅163, 0⋅405) and HAZ (β = -0⋅291, 95 % CI: -0⋅640, 0⋅588) of children.

To investigate the effects of providing a daily healthy school snack on children's nutritional, social and educational outcomes and explore stakeholders' perceptions of an emergency school feeding programme (SFP). Convergence triangulation mixed-methods study design. Associations were examined between receiving the school feeding intervention and children's outcomes using multivariable regression models. Quantitative data were complemented with interviews and focus group discussions with parents and staff. In vulnerable communities in Lebanon, the World Food Programme has implemented an emergency SFP targeting Lebanese (attending morning sessions) and Syrian refugee children (attending afternoon sessions) in public schools. Children from ten intervention schools (morning n 403; afternoon n 379) and ten matched control schools (morning n 399; afternoon n 401), as well as twenty-nine parents and twenty-two school staff members. Diet diversity was higher in intervention schools as compared with control with a significantly higher consumption of dairy products, nuts and fruit in both sessions. Child-reported food insecurity experience was lower in children attending the afternoon session of intervention v. control schools. The SFP intervention was associated with higher school engagement and sense of school community in the morning session only. While the SFP was significantly associated with higher attendance for children in afternoon sessions only, it was significantly associated with school retention of children in both sessions. A daily healthy snack potentially acts as an incentive to improve children's nutritional outcomes, school engagement, sense of belonging, equality between students and improvement in children's attendance and retention in public schools.

ABSTRACTBackground: School feeding programs have gained popularity in developing countries . Eggs are an inexpensive source of micronutrients and high-quality protein. Therefore, the objective of this study was to gain preliminary data regarding the impact of egg supplementation on growth in primary school students participating in a school feeding program in rural Uganda.Methods: Children (ages 6–9; n = 241) were recruited from three different schools located throughout the Kitgum District of Uganda. All participants in the same school received the same dietary intervention: control (no eggs (0 eggs); n = 56), one egg five days per week (1 egg; n = 89), or two eggs five days per week (2 eggs; n = 96). Height, weight, tricep skinfold thickness (TSF), and mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) were measured monthly over 6 months.Results: Following six months of egg supplementation, participants receiving 2 eggs had a greater increase in height and weight compared to the 0 eggs and 1 egg groups (P < 0.05). In addition, participants receiving 1 egg and 2 eggs had a significantly higher (P < 0.05) increase in MUAC at six months compared to 0 eggs.Conclusion: These results suggest that supplementation with eggs can improve parameters of growth in school-aged children participating in school feeding programs in rural Uganda.Abbreviations: MUAC: Mid-Upper Arm Circumference; TSF: Tricep Skinfold Thickness

Even in high-income countries like Israel, children have been particularly vulnerable to the surge in food insecurity driven by quarantines, unemployment, and economic hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic. Under normal circumstances, School Feeding Programs (SFPs) can help to ensure child food security. In the wake of the pandemic, policy makers worldwide have been challenged to adapt national SFPs to provide nutritional support to children (and indirectly to their families) during extended school closures. Most national SFPs implemented contingency plans to ensure continued nutritional support for children. In Israel, where SFPs were largely suspended during long periods of mandated school closing, there was a loss of 30–50% of feeding days for the ~ 454,000 children enrolled in the program. The lack of emergency contingency planning and failure to maintain Israeli SFPs during school closures reveals longstanding structural policy flaws that hindered coordination between relevant ministries and authorities and impeded the mobilization of funds and existing programs to meet the emergent need. The school feeding law does not identify child food security as an explicit aim, there are no benchmarks for monitoring and evaluating the program to ensure that the food aid reaches the children most in need, even routinely, and the Ministry of Education had no obligation to maintain the program and to marshal data on the participants that could be acted upon in the emergency. Moreover, because Israeli SFPs are “selective”, in other words, implemented according to community risk (low-income, high poverty rate) and geographical factors, attendant stigma and financial burdens can make participation in the program less attractive to families and communities that need them the most. We argue that Israel should make urgent, long-term improvements to the SFPs as follows: First, eliminating childhood food insecurity should be made an explicit goal of legislation in the broader context of national social, health, and nutritional goals, and this includes ensuring SFPs are maintained during emergencies. Second, the government should assume responsibility for the routine assessment and data collection on food insecurity among Israeli children. Third, SFPs should be subjected to rigorous independent program evaluation. Finally, a “universal” SFP providing nutritious diets would likely improve the health of all Israeli children, across all socioeconomic backgrounds. These steps to guarantee that Israeli children have food to realize their full physical and cognitive potential would emphasize Israel’s firm commitment to support multiple dimensions of health, educational achievement, and societal values, to combat the complex and long-term consequences of the pandemic, and to prepare for the next one.

School Feeding Programs in Middle Childhood and Adolescence

Using the Eco‐Health approach, a local women's cooperative was paired with a rural school to provide traditional foods to children through a school feeding and nutrition education program. We investigated the effect of this program versus nutrition education alone on nutritional status, breakfast consumption and attitude towards traditional diets. Two elementary schools from the village of Aarsal, Lebanon participated in the study. At baseline and endpoint, height, weight, hemoglobin and breakfast recall were taken. All children received four nutrition education sessions and children from the intervention school received a daily school meal for 4 days/week for 5 months. Qualitative data were collected from meetings with parents. At baseline, stunting, overweight and anemia prevalence were at 8%, 20% and 6%, respectively. There was a significant decrease in anemia prevalence among schoolchildren taking part in the school feeding intervention (p&lt;0.0001). Breakfast consumption habits improved at both schools with a significant decrease in number of children not consuming breakfast (p&lt;0.001). Schoolchildren in the intervention school demonstrated improved attitudes towards traditional diet and healthy lifestyle practices. This school feeding program provides a potentially sustainable local model for school feeding programs in similar rural contexts in countries undergoing a nutrition transition.This research has been funded by Canada's International Development Research Center (IDRC).

Free school meals can be a transformative social policy instrument, especially in the Global South. Domestically sourced school feeding programs can improve children’s food security, augment household incomes, incentivize school attendance, and support local agricultural production. Scholars have so far paid only limited attention to the political causes and processes behind school feeding programs. To contribute to a better understanding of school food politics in Africa, we study the development of two national school feeding programs in Nigeria. We reconstruct and compare the development of the Obasanjo administration’s Home-Grown School Feeding and Health Programme, implemented from 2005 to 2008, and the Buhari administration’s National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme, implemented from 2016 to 2023. We argue that the relatively more successful implementation of the Buhari-era program was the result of a presidential ideology that was more supportive of social policy expansion, a policy design that was more conducive to state-level program implementation, and supportive technical assistance from the London-based Partnership for Child Development.

Childhood obesity has become a health problem in urban areas in China. Intervention to reduce childhood obesity should be of high priority. School-based intervention programmes are needed to deal with the growing prevalence of childhood obesity in China. Five primary schools were selected randomly for this study in the Beijing urban area in China; two were allocated to the intervention group and three to the control group. A total of 2425 children (1029 children in intervention schools and 1396 children in control schools) took part in the study for 3 years. In the intervention group, children and their parents were involved in a programme of nutrition education and physical activity. Control school students followed their usual health and physical education curriculum with no extra intervention. After the 3-year intervention, the prevalence of overweight and obesity were significantly lower in the intervention schools than in the control schools (overweight: 9.8% vs. 14.4%, P < 0.01; obesity: 7.9% vs. 13.3%, P < 0.01). The prevalence of overweight and obesity decreased by 26.3% and 32.5% in intervention schools respectively after intervention. The prevalence of overweight and obesity increased in control schools. There was also significant difference in body mass index between intervention and control schools (18.2 +/- 2.6 vs. 20.3 +/- 3.4, P < 0.01) after intervention. More non-obese children became obese in the control schools (7.0%) than in the intervention schools (2.4%) at end line (P < 0.01). Among the children who were obese at baseline, 49.2% remained obese at end line in intervention schools while 61.9% remained obese in control schools (P < 0.01). Our study showed that an intervention programme could be feasible in schools in Beijing, China. The prevalence of overweight and obesity was reduced in schoolchildren in Beijing through an intervention focused on nutrition education and physical activity. Overweight and obesity children as well as normal weight children and their parents should be involved in such an intervention programme.

School feeding programs have been introduced with the aim to alleviate hunger and improve pupils’ performance. This study investigates the effects of the school feeding program on pupils’ enrollment, attendance and academic performance in northeastern Nigeria. Primary data were obtained from 180 class teachers at 60 participating primary schools, as well as secondary data from their school records. The linear regression results showed that the duration of the feeding program has a significant positive effect on pupils’ academic performance. The propensity scores matching results revealed that the school feeding program has a positive effect on pupils’ enrollment and class attendance. While the effect of the program was not significant on academic performance, perhaps because the sample size was small or a relatively short duration of the program, making it difficult to detect statistically significant differences in academic performance. Long-term school feeding programs are recommended to encourage pupils’ school attendance which will, in turn, improve performance in the long term.

Tanzania made several initiatives to improve school feeding programmes (SFPs) for the quality of education in secondary schools, especially in drought-prone areas. Some anticipated benefits were improved attendance, significantly reduce tardiness and increase student enrolments. However, evidence regarding the influence of school feeding programmes on students’ academic performance is yet to be established. Therefore, this study examined the influence of SFPs on students’ academic performance. Specifically, the study determined the academic performance of students before and after the introduction of SFPs and assessed the relationship between SFPs and the academic performance of students in Shinyanga Municipality. Methodologically, the study used a mixed approach, simple random and purposive sampling techniques. Data were collected through questionnaires and interviews. Descriptive and inferential statistics through regression analysis were used. The findings revealed that the attendance and participation of students in the class were improved and that examination scores were higher than was the case before the introduction of SFPs. Furthermore, the study revealed a significant positive relationship between SFPs and academic performance at a p-value of 0.000. This suggests a linear relationship between the SFPs and students’ academic performance. It can therefore be concluded that SFPs are important for academic performance. Drawing from the findings, it is recommended that SFP should be part and parcel of educational policies that bring on board all stakeholders for improving attendance and activeness in class and eventually improve students’ academic performance in drought-stricken areas in Tanzania.

A school feeding program (SFP) influences school attendance and performance because better nutrition by default implies better physical and mental performance. SFP is an important motivation to attend school, especially in an area of extreme poverty and food insecurity. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of SFP on school attendance of students in the North-Eastern region of Nigeria, based on data from a cross-sectional comparative study of 780 aged between 6 and 13 year old selected primary schools in the North-Eastern region of Nigeria, conducted between November 2020 and February 2021 in selected primary schools in the North-Eastern region of Nigeria. We used different matching techniques and an endogenous switching regression approach to analyze the average treatment effect (ATT). The results show that the school feeding program has consistently positive and statistically significant effects on school attendance in all three models. The positive effect of SFP is stronger for students from larger households and for those living in remote areas. The direction and magnitude of the estimated impacts are consistent across specifications. In order to increase school attendance, the government should expand SFP coverage throughout the country, with priority given to conflict areas.

This study explores the influence of school feeding programs on pupil attendance and academic performance in Sierra Leone. With on-going challenges such as food insecurity, malnutrition, and widespread poverty, many school-age children across the country face difficulties in accessing consistent education. These socio-economic barriers often lead to irregular attendance, low classroom participation, and poor academic outcomes. The research investigates how structured school feeding initiatives contribute to improving these educational indicators, particularly in underserved rural communities. A desk-based research design was employed, relying on secondary data gathered from government publications, international development agency reports, and peer-reviewed academic studies. This method allowed for an in-depth review of existing evidence and analysis related to the implementation and outcomes of school feeding programs within the Sierra Leonean context. Findings from the study reveal that school feeding programs significantly enhance school attendance and academic achievement, especially in primary schools. The assurance of receiving at least one nutritious meal per day motivates children to attend regularly, while also improving their attention span, classroom engagement, and overall cognitive development. Girls and children from low-income households appear to benefit most, as the meals reduce the economic burden on families and incentivize continued education. Furthermore, school feeding has contributed to a reduction in dropout rates and better performance in core subjects such as English and Mathematics. The study is anchored in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and the Expectancy-Value Theory, highlighting the critical role that basic physiological needs play in shaping students’ academic behaviour and performance. The findings call for the integration of nutrition into national education planning and emphasize the importance of continuous monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. Strengthening Sierra Leone’s Home-Grown School Feeding Program and aligning it with broader educational and agricultural development policies could enhance the sustainability and reach of these interventions.

Background‘Home-grown’ school feeding programmes are complex interventions with the potential to link the increased demand for school feeding goods and services to community-based stakeholders, including smallholder farmers and women’s groups. There is limited rigorous evidence, however, that this is the case in practice. This evaluation will examine explicitly, and from a holistic perspective, the simultaneous impact of a national school meals programme on micronutrient status, alongside outcomes in nutrition, education and agriculture domains.The 3-year study involves a cluster-randomised control trial designed around the scale-up of the national school feeding programme, including 116 primary schools in 58 districts in Ghana. The randomly assigned interventions are: 1) a school feeding programme group, including schools and communities where the standard government programme is implemented; 2) ‘home-grown’ school feeding, including schools and communities where the standard programme is implemented alongside an innovative pilot project aimed at enhancing nutrition and agriculture; and 3) a control group, including schools and households from communities where the intervention will be delayed by at least 3 years, preferably without informing schools and households. Primary outcomes include child health and nutritional status, school participation and learning, and smallholder farmer income. Intermediate outcomes along the agriculture and nutrition pathways will also be measured. The evaluation will follow a mixed-method approach, including child-, household-, school- and community-level surveys as well as focus group discussions with project stakeholders. The baseline survey was completed in August 2013 and the endline survey is planned for November 2015.ResultsThe tests of balance show significant differences in the means of a number of outcome and control variables across the intervention groups. Important differences across groups include marketed surplus, livestock income, per capita food consumption and intake, school attendance, and anthropometric status in the 2–5 and 5–15 years age groups. In addition, approximately 19 % of children in the target age group received some form of free school meals at baseline.ConclusionDesigning and implementing the evaluation of complex interventions is in itself a complex undertaking, involving a multi-disciplinary research team working in close collaboration with programme- and policy-level stakeholders. Managing the complexity from an analytical and operational perspective is an important challenge. The analysis of the baseline data indicates that the random allocation process did not achieve statistically comparable treatment groups. Differences in outcomes and control variables across groups will be controlled for when estimating treatment effects.Trial registration numberISRCTN66918874 (registered on 5 March 2015).