State of School Feeding Worldwide 2020
This publication by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) provides an analysis of the State of School Feeding Worldwide in 2020. A report on the State of School Feeding Worldwide was first published by WFP in 2013 (WFP, 2013a). This 2020 version follows a similar format and uses the best available data sources to describe key aspects of coverage, implementation practices and costs of school-based health and nutrition programmes worldwide. In addition, the 2020 version seeks to analyse the direction and scale of change between 2013 and 2020, and to provide an update on advances in evidence and understanding of school feeding programmes.
The report is being published with an even greater sense of urgency as the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in February 2020 dealt a blow that brought an end to a neardecade of global growth in school feeding programmes. At the height of the crisis in April 2020, 199 countries had closed their schools and around 370 million children were suddenly deprived of their daily school meal. This loss highlighted the importance of school feeding as a social safety net, protecting the well-being of children and supporting their future. The sudden social shock of the crisis, and the experience of trying to cope without national education systems, has sharpened global resolve to restore access to education and to build back better systems.
