LONDON, UK, December 24, 2025 (ENS) – Today only one in five children in the world receives meals at school. Yet, healthy, sustainable school meals could “cut undernourishment, reduce diet-related deaths and lower environmental impacts,” finds a new modelling study led by a professor at University College London.
The authors estimated the potential effects of extending school meal coverage to all children by 2030 for dietary health; the environmental effects related to diets; as well as the costs of diets at global, regional, and national levels.
Global food systems are responsible for a third of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions while also contributing to rising malnutrition and diet-related diseases, the authors concluded.
“At the same time, national school meal programs across the globe feed 466 million children every day, representing 70 percent of the global public food system – a scale that provides governments unparalleled leverage,” they report.
The authors found that, extending school meal programs to all children globally by 2030 could be associated with” substantial health and environmental benefits globally and in each country.”
In the model assessments, the prevalence of undernourishment in food-insecure populations was reduced by a quarter. The research determined that due to having an additional meal at school; more than one million cases of non-communicable diseases were prevented globally each year if dietary habits were even partly sustained into adulthood.
“Food-related environmental effects were halved if meal composition adhered to recommendations for healthy and sustainable diets and food waste was reduced,” the authors concluded.
Increasing school meal coverage incurred additional meal-related costs that ranged from 0·1% of gross domestic product, GDP, in high-income countries to 1·0% of GDP in low-income countries.
“Reductions in the external costs of climate-change damages and the costs of illness compensated for the costs of providing meals in line with health and sustainable diets,” the authors report.
In interpreting their modelling results, the authors concluded that, “Universal school meal coverage could make important contributions to improving children’s health, the food security of their families, and the sustainability of food systems. However, dedicated policy and financial support will be required to close the gap in school meal coverage, especially in low-income countries.”
The study is part of a new collection of six papers published in the journal “Lancet Planetary Health” by members of the Research Consortium for School Health and Nutrition, the independent research initiative of the School Meals Coalition.
Taken together, the papers find that well-designed school meal programs could be a strategic investment in a healthier, more sustainable future.
Drawing together modelling, case studies and evidence from multiple disciplines, the collection demonstrates how planet-friendly school meal programs can:
- – improve child nutrition,
- – reduce the prevalence of long-term diet-related illness,
- – lessen climate and environmental pressures, and
- – stimulate more resilient, agrobiodiverse food systems.
School Meals: a Strategic Investment
The global modelling study, entitled, “The health, environmental, and cost implications of providing healthy and sustainable school meals for every child by 2030: a global modelling study,” was led by Professor Marco Springmann, modelling lead for the Research Consortium based at University College London’s Institute for Global Health.
The results show that providing a healthy, sustainable meal to every schoolchild by 2030 could help the planet and the hungry humans trying to stretch its resources. The researchers found that providing this one meal could:
- – Reduce global undernourishment by 24 percent, with particularly strong impacts in food-insecure regions. This translates to 120 million fewer people in the world not getting enough vitamins, minerals, and energy from food
- – Prevent over one million deaths every year from diet-related illnesses such as diabetes and coronary heart disease, assuming today’s schoolchildren retain, at least in part, a preference for healthy foods into adulthood
- – Halve food-related environmental impacts, including emissions and land use, when meals follow healthy, sustainable dietary patterns, for instance by increasing the proportion of vegetables and reducing meat and dairy products
- – Generate major health and climate savings, offsetting investment needs
“Our modelling shows that healthy and sustainable school meals can generate substantial health and environmental gains in every region of the world,” Professor Springmann said.
“Importantly,” he said, “the climate and health savings that result from healthier diets and lower emissions can help offset the costs of expanding school meal programs. The evidence is clear: investing in school meals is both effective and economically sound.”
Dr. Springmann is a Professorial Research Fellow in Climate Change, Food Systems and Health at UCL’s Institute for Global Health, and a Senior Researcher on Environment and Health at the University of Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute. He has contributed to high-level reports from the EAT-Lancet Commission on Healthy Diets from Sustainable Food Systems, the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change, the Global Nutrition Report, and the UN Environment Programme’s Emissions Gap Report.
Transforming Food Systems: a Framework
To support governments to transition to planet-friendly school meal programs, the collection sets out a conceptual framework for how school meals can drive systemic food systems transformation at scale, structured around four essential pillars:
Healthy, diverse, culturally relevant school menus
Clean, modern cooking methods
Reduced food loss and waste
Holistic food education that connects children, families and communities
Together, these pillars offer governments a pathway to improve child health and food literacy, strengthen agrobiodiversity, stimulate ecological local production and build climate-resilient food systems.
The framework emphasizes that these pillars must be embedded in public procurement rules, nutrition standards and policy reforms to unlock their full potential and shift demand towards healthier and more sustainable food systems.
“This framework highlights how school meals are not just a nutrition program. They are a powerful lever for transforming food systems,” co-author Dr. Silvia Pastorino, Diets & Planetary Health Lead for the Research Consortium and curator of the collection based at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said.
“When meals are healthy, sustainable and linked to food education, they improve children’s wellbeing today and foster long-term sustainable habits, while helping countries protect biodiversity, reduce emissions and build resilient communities. Few interventions deliver such wide-ranging, long-lasting benefits,” Dr. Pastorino explained.
The framework builds on insights first published in the Research Consortium’s 2023 White Paper, “School Meals and Food Systems,” which brought together 164 authors from 87 organizations worldwide, also coordinated by Dr. Pastorino.
Food, Learning, Energy, and Biodiversity
To explore each of the four pillars laid out in the framework, the wider “Lancet Planetary Health” collection includes five more papers:
- – A viewpoint from FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations) on integrating food education into learning to build lifelong sustainable habits
- – A personal view from a Loughborough University team on the critical role of clean, reliable energy in delivering safe, planet-friendly meals
- – A scoping review from Alliance Bioversity-CIAT on the importance of agrobiodiversity in providing nutritious, climate-resilient school menus
- – A personal view from an Imperial College London team on promoting regenerative agriculture, agrobiodiversity, and food security through school feeding
- – From evidence to action: supporting governments to implement planet-friendly policies
In partnership with international organizations and government partners, the Research Consortium is now developing a Planet-Friendly School Meals Toolkit to help countries assess the costs, environmental impacts and health benefits of shifting to sustainable school meal models. Co-created with partners in Kenya and Rwanda, the first results are expected in the spring of 2026.
At this year’s World Food Forum, held in October by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO Director-General Dr. Qu Dongyu of China praised young people’s determination, saying, “When I look at this generation, I see one that refuses to accept limits. I ask you not just to participate, but to lead. Speak boldly. Listen generously. Challenge each other, and lift each other up.”
“Today is about looking forward, to the future that youth are already shaping,” said Dr. Qu, who took office in August 2019 and was re-elected for a second four-year term in July 2023.
Held under the theme “Hand in Hand for Better Foods and a Better Future,” this year’s World Food Forum celebrated FAO’s 80th anniversary and emphasized the importance of working together across generations, sectors and regions to drive progress towards more sustainable, inclusive and resilient agrifood systems.
The theme aligns with FAO’s vision of the Four Betters – Better Production, Better Nutrition, a Better Environment and a Better Life – leaving no one behind – the guiding framework for achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Funding Sources:
The Research Consortium for School Health and Nutrition is supported by financial contributions from the International Development Research Centre;
Dubai Cares;
Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany;
International Development Research Centre, Canada;
Novo Nordisk Foundation; Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation;
Rockefeller Foundation;
US Department of Agriculture; and the National Institutes of Health, and
the United Nations World Food Programme.
In-kind support is provided by the Academy of Nutritionists and Dietetics, the world’s largest organization of food and nutrition professionals, and
the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations,
the governments of Brazil, Finland and France,
the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine,
the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and
the World Bank Group.
All authors declare no competing interests.
Featured image: Students of the Northwest Elementary School enjoy their lunch, Lebanon, Pennsylvania, October 17, 2024. As part of a larger update to the school nutrition standards announced earlier in 2024 under the administration of President Joe Biden, the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture made it easier for schools to buy local foods. (Photo courtesy U.S. Dept. of Agriculture via Flickr)
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