SCHOOL-meal programmes are the world’s most effective safety net, not only in supporting children’s health and learning, but also by contributing to a country’s wider economic and social development, a new World Food Programme (WFP) report says.

The number of children receiving school meals through government-led programmes has increased by 80 million in the past five years. Meals now reach 466 million children around the world, research for the State of School Feeding Worldwide 2024 Report has found.

Sub-Saharan Africa has had the biggest rise in school feeding programmes. National governments have provided food for an extra 20 million children since 2020.

World Vision works in conjunction with the WFP and the School Meals Coalition to develop feeding programmes, particularly in fragile countries and settings for humanitarian intervention after natural disasters or emergencies. World Vision reaches around 740,000 children in these contexts where, in many places, a school meal is likely to be the only food a child receives.

Amanda Rives, of World Vision International, said: “School meals are a powerful tool for building resilience across multiple dimensions. They support children’s learning, create local employment, offer safe spaces for vulnerable children, and ease the financial pressure on families facing poverty.”

The WFP report — published before the School Meals Coalition Summit is held in Fortaleza, Brazil, this month — shows how the Covid pandemic led to the virtual collapse of school-meal programmes, which experienced, however, a resurgence afterwards.

The report describes “a shift in how countries perceive school meals, not only as the world’s largest and most effective safety net which governments rely on during crises, but as a major contributor to national development to help address society wide problems.

“Government investments in school meals . . . [signal] a significant shift from reliance on foreign aid, to recognising school meals as a strategic public investment in children’s education and health.”

The WFP’s director, Cindy McCain, said: “School meals are so much more than just a plate of nutritious food — important as that is. For the vulnerable children who receive them, they are a pathway out of poverty and into a new world of learning and opportunity.

“They are proven to be one of the smartest, most cost-effective investments any nation can make to improve the long-term health, education and economic prosperity of future generations.”

Programmes also support local agriculture and deliver jobs across farming and supply chains. The report estimates that the delivery of meals to 466 million children creates around 7.4 million jobs.

In Benin, the school feeding programme contributed $23 million (£17 million) to the local economy in 2024. In Sierra Leone, one third of the school meals were produced by local farmers.

In Sudan, even in the midst of conflict where 16 million children have been forced out of school, some children still have access to WFP take-home rations.

Millions of others, however, especially in some of the lowest-income African countries, such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, and South Sudan, still lack any access to school meals. International aid from the United States and the UK has been significantly reduced.