Nutrient-rich school meals

This solution was shared by PRE-LAUNCH RESEARCH TEAM
14 May 2021

Description of the innovative solution

As economies develop and children eat more meals at school, meal programmes struggle to provide nutrient-rich foods that are affordable and desirable for local communities. There is a need to provide nutrient-rich foods in school meal programmes in order to maximize physical and intellectual development of youth. This innovation includes introducing and scaling up the provision of locally sourced nutrient-rich foods during school feeding programs. The use of small fish as a nutrient-rich animal sourced food is an option as fish provide a combination of essential nutrients not found in other...

As economies develop and children eat more meals at school, meal programmes struggle to provide nutrient-rich foods that are affordable and desirable for local communities. There is a need to provide nutrient-rich foods in school meal programmes in order to maximize physical and intellectual development of youth. This innovation includes introducing and scaling up the provision of locally sourced nutrient-rich foods during school feeding programs. The use of small fish as a nutrient-rich animal sourced food is an option as fish provide a combination of essential nutrients not found in other foods. Nutrients could also be delivered in the form of a tasty nutrient-rich power drink, which is more acceptable to children, instead of fish as a meal ingredient.

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Examples and additional resources

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Lunch Box School Feeding Initiative
Chartwells School Dining Service
Lunch Box School Feeding Initiative
Project information

Food for All Ghana School Feeding Program rebranded as the “LunchBox School Feeding Initiative” empowers vulnerable and food-insecure children build a life free of poverty by providing access to education and nutritious meals.

Ghana
Shared by PRE-LAUNCH RESEARCH TEAM
Chartwells School Dining Service
Business information

Creating one-of-a-kind foodservice programs to make sure that students leave the cafeteria happier and healthier than when they came.

United States
Shared by IFSS Portal Research Team

Additional resources

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FAO School Food and Nutrition Framework
Scientific paper
This document is the result of an extensive consultation process and describes the key
areas of work in school food and nutrition that represent FAO’s comparative advantage.
Shared by PRE-LAUNCH RESEARCH TEAM
Impacts of school feeding on educational and health outcomes of school-age children and adolescents in low- and middle-income countries
Scientific paper
This paper outcomes a protocol through a systematic review and meta-analysis to provide a crucial evidence base for the educational and health benefits of school feeding on children and adolescents in LMICs.
Shared by Glocolearning

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melissa.vargas@fao.org

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Shared by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

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Improving the daily nutrition intaking of children and lactating mothers and pregnant women.
Nutrient-rich school meals
Ethiopia

The minimum-cost nutritious diet is unaffordable for ¾ of Ethiopian households and a 2.5 g of egg-powder/child/day reduces the cost of the optimized diet by 14%. Egg-powders allow an additional ~1.2 million households afford the optimized diet and free egg-powder for the poor can make the optimized child diet affordable-for-all. The plant working by integration with small holder urban poultry farm owned by women and this could be a solution for women empowerment.

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Nutrient-rich school meals remove access to appropriate nutrition as a barrier to opportunity.
Nutrient-rich school meals
Ethiopia

Cooked meals are provided to school children of all ages with regularly changing menus. Meals are free (or highly subsidized) so they are accessible to all children, regardless of family income. Children receive two meals per-day, containing nutrient-dense foods and micronutrient-fortified processed products.

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