March Newletter

GCNF March Newsletter 🌍🌎🌏

March is the month for school meals.

Every day, school feeding leaders work to keep children, and many times their communities, fed. Across sectors, regions large and small, and in the face of ever-evolving challenges, the school meal program network works tirelessly toward more sustainable, lasting, and impactful school meal programs.

In the month of March, the rest of the world had a chance to join in on the conversation.

From the 8th African Day of School Feeding and International School Meals Day, to the launch of the State of School Feeding Worldwide report and our very own School Meal Program Coverage webinar, conversations around health, education, nutrition, agriculture and more have never been more inundated by the phrase "school meals."

As March comes to a close and April begins, let us continue this momentum, pushing dialogue, policy, and action forward to realize a future where every child benefits from safe and nutritious school meals.

Dive into this month's newsletter to learn about these March events, both past and coming up.

A Measurement Maze: Defining School Meal Coverage

This 1-hour webinar will take an in-depth look at the various ways to define “coverage” when measuring the reach of school meal programs.

On March 22, we will explore options for constructing this key indicator, hear from a panel of experts, and engage in open discussion. Learn more and register.

International School Meals Day

The world celebrated International School Meals Day on March 9th, igniting conversations online and in person around the importance of school meals. To see a bit for yourself, check out #ISMD2023 on Twitter or read GCNF's blog on our top 5 favorite facts about school feeding.

Exploring Adolescent Health at the B20 Summit
Designed by GCNF for the Global Dialogue on Food Systems Transformation, Teens in the Modern Food Environment: Challenges and Successes will highlight ways to improve

the food environment for adolescents in a way that benefits people, the planet, and prosperity. Youth represent the best opportunity for our planet’s immediate future, yet enormous challenges threaten their health and welfare. Learn more and register here.

Exploring Home-Grown School Feeding

Our most recent blog explores the recently released guidelines from AUDA-NEPAD on home-grown school feeding. These guidelines can gear up African governments’ efforts to promote HGSF by increasing investments, coverage, accountability, inter-sectoral collaboration, and inclusion. In this blog, we briefly summarize these guidelines and draw on regional data, where available, using results from the Global Survey of School Meal Programs.