Seventy-three million vulnerable children in primary schools today, as you read, around the world do not have access to school meals and often go to school on an empty stomach.

According to the World Food Programme (2023), the absence of school meals affects their cognitive development, contributing to learning difficulties and increasing educational inequalities.

Hunger, poverty and poor education are interdependent. When children stay hungry, chances that they will attend school are slim, and without education, their chances of breaking the poverty trap are significantly reduced (UNDP, 2023).

School Feeding Programs which are born to reverse this trend are among the world's largest social safety nets that targets children from deprived communities or with disadvantaged backgrounds to improve their nutritional and educational status.

For example, in Ghana, the idea of Ghana’s School Feeding Program (GSFP) has been to provide children in public primary schools and kindergartens with one hot nutritious meal, prepared from locally grown foodstuff on every school-going day (NATIONAL SCHOOL FEEDING POLICY , 2015).

When these programs are implemented effectively, they open up numerous learning opportunities, combat child hunger, strengthen public health, and alleviate poverty by boosting the incomes of smallholder farmers. Clearly, they provide a range of socio-economic benefits and can be a powerful tool to transform education and food systems.

The Nutritional Benefits of School Meals

Studies have shown that the introduction of school meals have improved dietary diversity and nutrient intake among children, contributing to better overall health and a reduction in malnutrition rates. Nutrition impacts a child's physical growth, emotional development as well as cognitive capabilities. In addition to having a lower risk of illness, children with access to proper nutrition are often able to stay healthy, thereby, performing well in school.

Comparing students with healthy and unhealthy diets, various studies have shown that, good nutrition is associated with school performance (Kim et al., 2016). Children undergo the most rapid developmental changes during their early school years, and develop important skills that has an impact on their education (Brown & Jernigan, 2012).

Working memory and attention control, in particular, improve rapidly, having a significant impact on children's learning capacity in later years (Welsh et al., 2010). Many low-income homes struggle to put food on the table, especially in the mornings.

School feeding programs help bridge these gaps by providing children with nutritious food. The quality of nutritious meals provided to pupils in Hohoe municipality and Tamale metropolis reduced malnutrition and increased nutritional status (Agbozo et al., 2017). In the Bawku municipality, studies have shown protein from the bean meal increased the protein consumption of pupils as compared to the less carbohydrate that pupils consume (Gyasi et al., 2018). 

The Educational Benefits of School Meals
Aside enhancing the nutritional status of children, one of the core primary aims of the GSFP has been to encourage families with disadvantaged backgrounds to enrol their children in schools, encouraging regular attendance.  Research conducted by Serebour (2017) found that enrollment numbers nearly doubled, with a substantial increase in the number of students from Primary 1 to Primary 6. 

Not only did more children enrol, but the program also positively impacted school attendance and retention rate. In a district in Accra, school meals were so effective that even children who weren't school-aged were enrolled just to benefit from the meals.

These meals attract students to school, boosting attendance and helping them stay in school until they finish their primary education (Tagoe, 2018). To add, a study by Yendaw and Dayour (2015) in the Savelugu-Nantong municipality found that before the school feeding program, the enrollment rate was 35.8%.

After the program's introduction, it rose to 64.2%. Attendance also improved dramatically, from 22% attending school throughout the week to 65.4% after the program began. These findings highlight that school meal programs are simply effective tools for improving educational attendance and retention rates.

Beyond Nutrition: Socio-Economic Benefits
Government fiscal spending on school feeding programs has a powerful ripple effect on the local economy. These programs create a stable market for smallholder farmers, allowing them to invest confidently in their agricultural production while promoting the consumption of local food (Gelli et al., 2021).

This multi-sectoral social safety net not only stimulates economic integration within communities but also helps break the endless cycle of poverty. For example, according to the WFP (2023), every $1 invested in school meal programs generates a $9 in return. This economic rent stems from various benefits it offers to the local food system stakeholders:

1. School cooks; receive income for preparing nutritious meals for children.
2. Market women; benefit financially as school cooks purchase food ingredients from them.
3. Smallholder farmers; see increased demand for their produce as both school cooks and market women purchase food supplies from them.

Fiscal investment in school feeding programs do have the potential to boost local economies, support smallholder farmers, while enhancing children's health and education status.

Addressing Concerns and Overcoming Challenges
Despite its successes thus far, the school meal program faces several challenges. Many people reported that the meals served to the children were of moderate quality and quantity, which is detrimental to the program's sustainability. In 2022, the Audit Service discovered that the quantity of food provided by the caterers was insufficient to maintain the students throughout the school day, and not all of the required students were served.

The caterers served low quality food to the students. Beneficiary students were not fed on every school day as mandated. But the issue of the nutritional value and menu deviations might have to wait in line for now, because the core issue is that there are recurring strikes by caterers protesting against chronic arrears and inadequate grant funding from the government.

And even before the strikes which have been occurring as far back as 7 years ago, caterers reported that they sometimes have to rely on their own savings from their side business or take out loans to prepare food for kids in a timely fashion with the hope that the government funds them accordingly so that they can repay back their loans (karim Dini-Osman, 2022). Exploring innovative finance mechanisms is highly called for to sustain school feeding programs.

Conclusion (Call to Action):
The benefits of a well designed, properly financed school feeding programs are enormous and this calls for a rethinking of investment priorities towards school meals. Government should increase the amount allocated per student for the school feeding program to ensure students receive adequate meals.

The initial agreement requiring the caterers to pre-finance the procurement has proven not to be feasible as proven by the audit service findings that majority are unable to do so.  Also, it is necessary for the caterers to be paid on time to enable them to purchase goods for the food preparation.

The procurement process must be reviewed. Caterers should purchase from local farmers rather than imported goods, thereby supporting the local market. 

In closing, the #SchoolFood4Future campaign is set to amplify awareness and sustain conversation on the significance of school meals, and rally a collective citizenry support to transform school meals in Ghana in the quest to transform education and local Ghanaian food system. 

Reference
Agbozo, F., Atitto, P., & Abubakari, A. (2017). Nutritional status of pupils attending public schools with and without school feeding programmes in Hohoe municipality GHANA.

Brown, T.T., & Jernigan, T.L. (2012). Brain Development during the Preschool Years. Neuropsychol. Rev., 22, 313–333.

Gelli, A., Masset, E., Adamba, C., Alderman, H., Arhinful, D., Aurino, E., Folson, G., Osei-Akoto, I., & Asante, F. (2021). School Meals as a Market for Smallholder Agriculture: Experimental Evidence from Ghana.

Kim, S. Y., Sim, S., Park, B., Kong, I. G., Kim, J. H., & Choi, H. G. (2016). Dietary habits are associated with school performance in adolescents. Medicine, 95(12), e3096.

NATIONAL SCHOOL FEEDING POLICY : Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection. (2015). https://www.mogcsp.gov.gh/mdocs-posts/national-school-feeding-policy/New Report Confirms Game-changing Impact of Health and Nutrition in School | World Food Programme. (2023).

Serebour R. (2017). Assessing the Implementation of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP): A Comparative Case Study of Some Selected Schools in the Atwima Nwbiagya District and Atwima Mponua District of Ghana. University of Bergen, Norway.

Tagoe, I. (2018). The Ghana National School Feeding Program: Peoples' Perceptions about the Program's Impact on School Enrolment, Attendance and Completion (Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University).

The State of School Feeding Worldwide 2022 | World Food Programme. (2023, March 21).

The World. (2022, May 23). Global food costs rise, African schoolchildren pay the price. Retrieved from: https://theworld.org/stories/2022/05/23/global-food-costs-rise-african-schoolchildren-pay-price

United Nations Development Programme [UNDP] (2023). Global multidimensional poverty index (MPI): unstacking global poverty: data for high impact action. New York.

Welsh, J.A., Nix, R.L., Blair, C., Bierman, K.L., & Nelson, K.E. (2010). The Development of Cognitive Skills and Gains in Academic School Readiness for Children from Low-Income Families. J. Educ. Psychol., 102, 43–53.

Yendaw, E., & Dayour, F. (2015). Effect of The National School Feeding Programme on Pupils’ enrolment, Attendance and Retention: A Case Study of Nyoglo of the Savelugu-Nantong Municipality, Ghana.

Authors: Jeffrey Adusei Opoku, Sherita Elorm Ayivi, Ruheima Zakaria Balo, Solomon Yeboah, George Arthur, Joan Agbenu, & Kwaku Brobbey Akyea-Boakye