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As Summer 2025 comes to a close, GCNF is spotlighting the new initiatives, programs, and partnerships launched this season to strengthen school meal programs worldwide. Tune in to recent podcasts where GCNF leadership explores the history, evolution, and future of school meals, and check out our newest blog series, Government Voices, featuring firsthand perspectives on driving change in national programs. Our team will also be featured at upcoming events, including the 2025 Global Summit of the School Meals Coalition, where we’ll share new findings and spotlight successful CSO–government partnerships. We're also excited to announce the relaunch our Public-Private Engagement opportunities, creating pathways for partners to connect with governments to support and scale school meal programs. This fall, we are excited to launch a new webinar series with IFPRI, exploring the evidence, innovations, and partnerships shaping the future of school meals. More details to come!
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Showcasing the Value of Civil Society Organizations
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GCNF is proud to support the School Meals Coalition’s Civil Society Organization (CSO) lead, World Vision International, in conducting a survey of CSO contributions to school meal programs. This survey invites CSO members of the Coalition to highlight how their organizations have contributed to the goals outlined in the School Meals Coalition’s Declaration of Support and the Joint Civil Society Call to Action. It also provides a chance to share the types of assistance they can offer governments in need, helping them meet their SMC commitments. By capturing these perspectives, the survey seeks to build a clearer picture of how civil society is helping to drive progress and where additional support and connections are needed.
The findings will be shared at the 2nd Global Summit of the School Meals Coalition in Fortaleza, Brazil, on September 18th - 19th, 2025, as a first step in a broader effort to recognize, map, and elevate the vital roles CSOs play in strengthening school meal programs globally.
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New IFPRI & GCNF Webinar Series | School-based Interventions in the 21st Century: Evidence Gaps and Future Directions
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School meals have re-emerged as a global priority, supporting child health, education, and well-being while also strengthening food systems, promoting equity, and contributing to sustainability. Yet many critical questions remain: Which models work best, in which contexts, and for whom? How can programs maximize both immediate and long-term benefits?
To help answer these questions, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and GCNF are launching a virtual brown bag research seminar series this September. Drawing on the world’s most comprehensive data from the Global Survey of School Meal Programs©, the series will bring together researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to explore promising practices, evidence gaps, and new directions for school feeding research.
Stay tuned for more details and registration information ahead of the first webinar in September 2025!
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GCNF Launches New Public-Private Engagement Initiative
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We are excited to announce GCNF's Public-Private Engagement initiative, an effort to connect governments and private sector partners in building sustainable school meal programs. School feeding systems are complex, and success increasingly depends on flexible, transparent collaboration. This initiative aims to foster responsible partnerships where the well-being of children comes first, and where businesses, governments, and communities thrive together.
School meal programs offer enormous potential to advance children’s health, education, and local economies, but aligning public and private sector goals can be challenging. As a knowledgeable, trusted, and neutral partner, GCNF is well positioned to identify opportunities, facilitate dialogue, and support long-term public-private engagement that prioritizes student nutrition and sustainability over short-term marketing objectives. This initiative is a call for leaders across sectors to join forces and invest in the future of children worldwide. Interested? Email: Info@gcnf.org
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Featured GCNF Resource
Brazil Country Report
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In honor of the hosts of the upcoming School Meals Coalition Summit, GCNF is highlighting our Brazil Country Report. Based on the Government of Brazil' responses to the Global Survey of School Meal Programs, the report demonstrates Brazil's ongoing commitment and leadership in school feeding, with universal coverage, innovative policies,and a willingness to share their experience with others. Explore the country report to learn more about Brazil’s achievements and contributions to advancing nutritious, equitable school meals for all children.
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Opinion: What We Feed Our Children Can Fix Our Planet
Devex
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In her July 23, 2025 opinion piece, Sara Farley of the Rockefeller Foundation highlights school meals as a powerful catalyst for climate resilience and equitable food systems. She argues that linking climate-smart agriculture with school feeding programs offers a triple win: creating rural jobs, improving child nutrition, and helping heal the planet by supporting smallholder farmers.
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Assessing the Overall Benefits of Programs Enhancing Human Capital and Equity: A New Method with an Application to School Meals
Harold Alderman, Elisabetta Aurino, Priscilla Twumasi Baffour, Aulo Gelli, Festus Ebo Turkson, Brad Wong
This study introduces a method to assess both productivity and equity impacts of education programs. Using evidence from a large-scale school meals RCT, researchers found significant welfare gains, driven primarily by higher future earnings as well as distributional benefits. The approach offers a valuable tool for evaluating programs that build human capital and promote equity.
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Financial Instruments Toolkit for Regenerative School Meals
The Rockefeller Foundation
This toolkit includes a comprehensive framework for investing in regenerative agriculture and school meals together via strategic public and private investment instruments, which are ripe for this transformational solution. The framework offers pathways to new funding streams, including domestic budgets, international climate funds, and private capital, and coordinating mechanisms to operationalize regenerative school meals at scale.
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Podcasts Highlight Benefits of School Meals: GCNF Leadership Discusses on Voices to End Hunger and Changing Plates
School meals reach more than 407 million children worldwide—often providing the only nutritious meal a child may receive in a day. GCNF leaders recently highlighted the power of these programs on two leading podcasts.
On the Alliance to End Hunger's podcast, Voices to End Hunger, Arlene Mitchell, GCNF's Executive Director, discussed the history and global impact of school meals, along with the importance of U.S. investment through initiatives like McGovern-Dole Food for Education. Listen to the episode here.
On Changing Plates, Heidi Kessler, GCNF's Deputy Director, shared insights from GCNF’s Global Survey of School Meal Programs©, explored the benefits of home-grown school feeding, gender equity, and community resilience, and reflected on lessons from Japan’s Shokuiku model of food education. Listen to the episode here.
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Government Voices: Cambodia Community Roots, Brighter Futures - How Cambodian Parents Are Transforming School Meals
Blog by Mr. Ven Thol, Deputy Director of the Primary Education Department at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, Cambodia and GCNF’s local focal point for the Global Survey of School Meal Programs©
In the quiet mornings of rural Cambodia, something powerful is taking root—parents are helping put fresh fruit on their children’s school plates. The initiative is a community-led effort, independent of government mandates or donor-driven campaigns. It is steadily transforming school nutrition through the regular inclusion of locally sourced foods such as bananas and pumpkins.
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Neglected No More: Why Climate-Smart Underutilized Foods Belong on School Meal Menus
Blog by Sharon Mendonce Teresa Borelli, and Danny Hunter of Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT; Francis Mwanza, GCNF Senior Advisor for Heritage Crops; Emily Fredenberg, GCNF Senior Program Officer; and Jenna Perry, PhD Candidate, University of the Sunshine Coast.
No matter what’s on the menu, whether it’s rice with a side of grilled fish, ugali topped with sautéed kale or pasta in a tomato sauce, one fact holds true: school meals deliver far-reaching benefits. Beyond supporting child health, nutrition, and education, school meals have the potential to drive countries toward more sustainable, climate-resilient, and inclusive food systems.
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Feeding the Grades - Calling for an Expansion of School Meals in India
Blog by Dr. Shivani Gharge, GCNF Research Coordinator & Dr. Sayeed Unisa, former Head of the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the International Institute for Population Sciences.
Why do children drop out of school, and what helps them stay? These questions are at the heart of education policy, especially in a country like India, where universal school enrolment and retention remains a significant challenge.
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Bridging the Gap: How Food Banks Can Help School Meal Programs Serve More Fresh, Safe, and Sustainable Food
A Global Child Nutrition Foundation blog based on an interview with Elijah Amoo Addo, Founder of Food for All Africa conducted by Emily Fredenberg, Senior Program Officer for the Global Child Nutrition Foundation.
Emily Fredenberg, Senior Program Officer for the Global Child Nutrition Foundation sat down with Elijah Amoo Addo, Founder of Food for All Africa, West Africa’s first and largest food bank, to learn more about how his food bank is working to reduce food losses and get fresh food to schools.
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- International Congress of Nutrition of IUNS - Paris, France | August 24th - 29th, 2025 | Learn more
- School Meals Coalition - Global Summit - Fortaleza, Brazil | September 18th - 19th, 2025 | Learn more
- 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly - New York, New York | September 22nd - 30th, 2025 | Learn more
- Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo® - Nashville, Tennessee | October 11th - 14th, 2025 | Learn more
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