Home Grown School Feeding

This innovative approach links school feeding programmes with local smallholder farmers to provide millions of schoolchildren in 46 countries with food that is safe, diverse, nutritious, and above all local. The benefits of this are evident and manifold. The schools provide local farmers with a predictable outlet for their products, leading to a stable income, more investments and higher productivity. The children enjoy healthy, diversified food; this makes it more likely that they will stay in school, perform better and improve their adult job prospects. At the community level, Home Grown School Feeding initiatives promote nutrition education and better eating habits, and encourage the diversification of production with a special emphasis on local crops. Community involvement, in turn, enhances the sustainability of programmes.