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You’re invited!
The 2024 Global Child Nutrition Forum
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The Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF) invites you to attend the Global Child Nutrition Forum taking place in Osaka, Japan from 9 through 12 December 2024! This four-day learning exchange is organized by GCNF and International Child Nutrition Japan in collaboration with the Government of Japan and the School Meals Coalition (SMC). The event serves as a key platform for governments and their partners to learn, exchange experiences, and gain inspiration for building, maintaining, and expanding high-quality school meal programs.
The theme of the 2024 Forum is “School Meal Programs in an Era of Food Systems Transformation”. The program includes plenary sessions, technical workshops, a gala event, and site visits to see local school meal activities. Highlights of the 2024 Global Survey of School Meal Programs © will be shared along with other research and innovations relevant to school meal programs. The latest Forum agenda is available on GCNF’s website here and will be updated periodically.
Japan was selected as the 2024 location due to its exceptional school meal and nutrition education programs. Learn more about how Japan’s program stands out here. The Forum is an official partner event of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) and supports the objectives of the SMC and the Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit. This Forum was made possible with generous contributions from The Rockefeller Foundation and other supporters. If your organization is interested in supporting the Forum, please contact info@gcnf.org.
Participants can register here to attend the Forum. Once registered, participants will receive a visa support letter, along with other logistical and hotel block information. Participants are responsible for their own travel and lodging costs. For more information on the Forum, including frequently asked questions, registration, the draft agenda and more, please visit GCNF’s Forum webpage. For additional assistance on Forum registration or for more information, please contact info@gcnf.org.
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Call for Forum Research Poster Entries!
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If you’ve conducted research or written any reports/papers on topics related to school meal programs within the last four years, we are interested in working with you to display the headline conclusion of your research/paper at the 24th Global Child Nutrition Forum. The Forum will be held in Osaka, Japan from 9 through 12 December 2024.
Quite different from traditional research posters, GCNF's headline posters are intended to announce the results or conclusions of your work in 25 words or less (in headline form). Posters should provide only the core details of the research, including: title of the work, introduction, author(s), citation, and the URL link to access the full report/paper (either QR code or hyperlink). GCNF is accepting poster submissions for consideration from now until 18 October. Accepted posters are planned to be displayed during the Forum and on GCNF’s webpage post-Forum. An example of a headline poster can be found below. For additional information and to submit a poster for consideration, please contact arlene@gcnf.org.
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Next Steps: Global Survey of School Meal Programs ©
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The Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF) wishes to thank all governments that participated in the 2024 Global Survey of School Meal Programs ©. Data collection took place from November 2023 through July 2024, with information gathered on the 2022 school year. Data analysis is currently ongoing, and highlights of the results will be presented during the Global Child Nutrition Forum, taking place in Osaka, Japan from 9-12 December. The full survey report, “School Meal Programs Around the World”, is expected to be released in early 2025.
For governments that would still like to submit a survey covering the 2022 school year, please contact info@gcnf.org. The 2024 survey has captured data from 141 countries, including 12 countries that have submitted data for the first time. A set of 2024 individual country reports are already available on GCNF’s country reports page, and additional country reports will be added on a rolling basis as they are completed.
The Global Survey of School Meal Programs © is the most comprehensive data collection on national and large-scale school feeding programs and has captured information on 166 countries to date. The survey has been conducted three times thus far, covering the school years that began in 2017, 2020, and 2022. The resulting data provides governments and other stakeholders with an up-to-date global database of standardized information on school meal programs to make informed decisions. To learn more about the survey, visit GCNF’s website. |
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2024 country reports from Dominican Republic and Rwanda. These reports, along with those for other countries, are available on GCNF’s country reports page. Additional country reports will be added on a rolling basis as they are completed.
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GCNF Welcomed as ‘VACS Champion’
In August, GCNF was welcomed by the Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (VACS) initiative as its latest VACS Champion. The VACS initiative, launched by the U.S. Department of State, in partnership with the African Union and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in February 2023, seeks to adapt agricultural systems to the anticipated challenges of climate change while improving nutrition. VACS Champions are private sector and other non-governmental organizations recognized for undertaking projects committed to climate-adapted nutritious crop varieties and building healthy fertile soils.
GCNF encourages using public procurement mechanisms, particularly school meal programs, as a vehicle to drive sustainable demand for nutritious and climate-smart crops. The Global Survey of School Meal Programs © provides governments and other stakeholders with standardized data on school meal programs for informed decision making. This includes data on school menus, agricultural linkages and private sector engagement, and the environmental and nutrition-related aspects of school feeding that can play a vital role in increasing demand for a diverse range of nutritious and climate-smart crops.
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Building the evidence: Early nutrition sets the stage; subsequent investment plays out across childhood
Dr. Ronald E. Kleinman, GCNF Board President and Emily Fredenberg, GCNF Senior Program Officer
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Sri Lankan school children at lunch time. Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Education of Sri Lanka.
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The first 1,000 days of a child’s life—from conception to their second birthday—are a critical period for nutrition. During this window, appropriate nourishment lays the foundation for physical growth and development, neuro-cognitive development, and overall health. We know that inadequate nutrition during this time can have lifelong consequences, stunting a child’s potential. But what about the childhood years that follow? While early nutrition undeniably shapes a child’s developmental trajectory, emerging evidence challenges the perception that a child’s developmental path has been fully determined within this window of time. |
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School Meals in the News:
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‘School Meals International Donor Analysis: Analysis of school feeding financing data systems: challenges and opportunities’
Sustainable Financing Initiative for School Health and Nutrition
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School feeding is a powerful way to improve the lives of children, families and communities. Governments across the world’s poorest countries are adopting bold strategies to extend the reach of their programmes. International aid provides a vehicle for supporting their efforts. That vehicle is currently under-used. Based on the OECD reporting system, aid donors currently provide around $287m in aid for school feeding – less than 0.1 per cent of total aid. On any credible assessment of value-for-money and impact-for-children, the current aid level represents an under-investment – and not enough donors are prioritizing school feeding.
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‘School Food Programs in Canada: 15 Promising Cases’
University of Saskatchewan and Coalition for Healthy School Food
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The Government of Canada’s April 2024 announcement of a National School Food Program has made documenting promising school food models in Canada particularly timely. While Canada has never had a national program, there has been school food innovation at various scales across communities for decades. However, few studies describe the range of current Canadian school food program models. Canada’s patchwork of different school food programs, often volunteer-run and funded by provincial, territorial, and municipal governments, local and national charities, and in some programs, parental contribution, presents an opportunity to document the range of practices.
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‘Fortified whole grains and whole blends: A timely food systems shift’
Peiman Milani, Lawrence Haddad, Roy Steiner, Penjani Mkambula, Mehrdad Ehsani, David Kamau, Daniel Ndung'u, Saskia de Pee
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Grains are central to food systems in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Shifting consumption from refined grain foods to fortified whole grain and whole blend foods can improve food security and make diets healthier. This would also make food systems more efficient and resilient, and help mitigate the food crisis. School meal programs and other institutional and safety net markets offer the best entry points to initiate this necessary shift in food systems within LMICs.
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2-6 September- Africa Food Systems Forum: The African Food Systems Forum (AFSF) took place in Kigali, Rwanda from 2-6 September. AFSF aims to contribute to sustainable food systems in Africa that have the power to accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. GCNF Senior Advisor, Francis Mwanza and Survey Coordinator for Africa, Liliane Bigayimpunzi attended and engaged with stakeholders on the linkages between strengthening food systems and school meals.
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Francis Mwanza, GCNF Senior Advisor (left), Betty Kibaara of the Rockefeller Foundation (middle), and Liliane Bigayimpunzi, GCNF Survey Coordinator for Africa (right) at the official launch of the Fortified Whole Grain Alliance |
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27-29 August- X Regional School Feeding Forum for Latin America & the Caribbean: The Federal Government of Mexico jointly with the World Food Program hosted “X Regional School Feeding Forum for Latin America and the Caribbean” from 27-29 August in Mexico City. This event brought together more than 20 countries from Latin America and the Caribbean to discuss sustainable and quality school meal programs in the region. GCNF’s team lead for the Americas, Mariel Mendiola participated in a panel on the generation of school meal data for decision-making and public policy.
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Carmen Burbano, WFP Director of School Feeding (left), and Mariel Mendiola, GCNF team lead for the Americas (right)
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24 July- School Meal Policy submitted to G20-led Task Force for Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty: Forty-four member states and 34 partners of the School Meals Coalition, including GCNF, endorsed a School Meals Policy, which was submitted to the G20-led Task Force for a Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty. Read the policy and more here.
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In July, GCNF’s board of directors and staff convened in Washington, DC for the first in-person meeting since before COVID-19 to discuss the future of the organization. We were honored to have special guest Catherine Bertini, former Executive Director of the World Food Program (WFP), join the discussion.
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