Join us as we showcase our home-grown school feeding approaches at the 2nd Global Summit of the School Meals Coalition. We will share insights from East Africa on how school meals can be transformed into resilient, locally driven systems that support education, nutrition, and climate adaptation.

Since 2015, SNV has been implementing scalable parent-led school dairy programmes in Uganda and Ethiopia, increasing access to milk and yoghurt for school children.

In Uganda, by 2023, nearly 1 million children had been reached, creating a new market for 20,000 small-holder farmers.

In Ethiopia, we rolled out a tailored subsidy approach to address widespread concerns about the quality and affordability of milk. By July 2024, 81,400 public school students were enrolled.

Optimising sourcing and supply chains

Home-Grown School Feeding (HGSF) has long been recognised for its potential, but challenges remain in the quality, quantity, and reliability of local supply. Building on our experience in value chain development, SNV supports transparent and inclusive procurement systems that link smallholder farmers to structured demand. We partner to establish clear accountability mechanisms to strengthen supply chains and ensure equitable participation.

Supporting sustainable production and food system transformation

In many regions, agricultural systems are under pressure from climate change, biodiversity loss, and soil degradation. School feeding can be leveraged as an entry point to promote regenerative agriculture, improve biodiversity, and strengthen climate-resilient practices. By supporting farmers to adopt sustainable methods and diversify production, HGSF can drive healthier diets, restore ecosystems, and contribute to long-term climate adaptation and mitigation.

Promoting clean cooking and renewable energy

School feeding should not come at the cost of our environment and health of cooks. SNV supports the shift to clean cooking using renewable energy for institutional kitchens and sustainable biomass management mechanisms for rural and remote areas. These methods lower emissions, enhance health outcomes, and ensure school feeding aligns with wider climate action and energy access goals—particularly in rural and off-grid areas.

Leveraging innovative finance and community ownership

Scaling school feeding to reach every child will require greater investment than what is currently available. We see potential in innovative and blended finance mechanisms, combined with stronger community ownership. By strengthening regional partnerships and aligning government-led, community-led, and humanitarian efforts under strong national policies, we can scale nationally proven models to new contexts—ensuring healthy outcomes for every child.

Governments recognise school meal programmes as a cost-effective way to provide nutritious meals to schoolchildren and enhance education. More importantly, the benefits extend beyond education, positively affecting health, inclusivity, agriculture, and local economies. Effectively, for every dollar invested, the return is estimated at US$3 to US$9.

At the same time, donor funding is shrinking—creating uncertainty in countries that depend on external support to keep meals going. This has scaled back programmes or interrupted them altogether, reducing both reach and quality.

Across East Africa, we had to rethink financing for school feeding programmes. Conclusively, school feeding plays a crucial role in encouraging the most economically disadvantaged families to send their children, especially their daughters, to school. And for millions of children, school meals are often the only reliable source of daily nutrition.

In East Africa, there are promising signs of progress.

• Kenya has made a bold commitment to reach 10 million children by 2030, with growing public and private investment.

• Ethiopia recently expanded the Addis-led initiative, championed by the Mayor of Addis, and is now shaping national policy.

• Once paid for by parents, Uganda's programme is shifting to blended financing with increasing public funding.

The regional visioning workshop attended by partners across East Africa agreed: we can only Enhance Impact Through Collective Action across key areas to strengthen school feeding efforts.