School meals can be a strategic tool for preventing chronic non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular problems, throughout a person’s life. This is one of the main conclusions of the technical paper, published in October 2026 by the Research Consortium on School Health and Nutrition, an international network of researchers and experts linked to the School Feeding Coalition.
The paper brought together evidence from over 700 data sources and drew contributions from 115 experts from 71 organisations and 46 countries.
The School Feeding Coalition is a global alliance established to support countries in scaling up and improving the quality of school feeding programmes. Within the framework of the Coalition, the research consortium brings together universities, international organisations and partner institutions to generate scientific knowledge that strengthens public policies on school feeding.
Nutritional outcomes
The WFP Centre of Excellence against Hunger in Brazil played a leading role in drafting Chapter 5 of the document, which is dedicated to the conditions that enable school feeding programmes to achieve their best nutritional and health outcomes. The work involved the participation of Daniel Balaban, Livia Martins, Ana Clara Cathalat and Vinicius Limongi, who were among the study’s authors.
The chapter analysed how different school feeding models influence outcomes for children and adolescents. The research concluded that the benefits depend not only on the provision of meals, but also on the nutritional quality of the food, public procurement rules, programme governance and the food environment around schools.
The text particularly highlights the potential of family farming procurement programmes and locally sourced school feeding schemes, known as Home-Grown School Feeding, to link nutrition, agriculture and local development.
According to the authors, school feeding programmes that set nutritional standards to be followed provide fresh and minimally processed foods whilst regulating the sale of ultra-processed products in the school environment, have greater potential to promote healthy eating habits and reduce risk factors associated with chronic diseases.
Eating habits
Overall, the technical paper concluded that well-planned school meals improve the quality of the diet, contribute to child development and can influence eating habits that extend beyond the school gates.
Although there are still gaps in our understanding of the direct impacts on the prevention of chronic diseases in adulthood, the evidence suggests that investing in the quality of school meals is a promising strategy for promoting health and reducing inequalities.
The study also emphasised that school feeding should be viewed not merely as an educational policy, but as an integrated tool for health, social protection, agriculture and food security.
A draft version of the document can be accessed here. The final version will be published in 2027.