Healthier Food in Public Institutions
Strong, government-led policy can make schools places where children eat nutritious foods and build lifelong healthy eating habits. We work alongside civil society to remove ultra-processed products and expand access to nutritious foods in schools and other public institutions.
Why Are Healthy School Food Policies Important?
Healthy school food policies help create environments where children eat nutritiously, learn better and develop healthier eating practices.
Schools are where most of the world’s children spend much of their time, making them one of the most powerful environments for shaping what children eat and how they think about food. They offer a unique opportunity to provide nutritious meals that children may be lacking at home, curbing malnutrition and fueling academic success.
Comprehensive healthy school food policies include nutritious meals sourced from local suppliers, bans on the sale and promotion of unhealthy foods on and near school grounds, clear nutrition standards and nutrition education in curricula. Together, these interventions improve what children eat and deepen their understanding of why nutrition matters.
We support partners to advance comprehensive school food policies, helping build healthier food environments where the next generation’s habits are shaped. In Brazil, this has included supporting the development of the National School Feeding Program (PNAE), one of the largest and most celebrated school feeding programs in the world. Today it reaches millions of students and supports family farmers by requiring that a portion of food be sourced locally.
Our Impact
Our partnerships have helped secure major school food policy wins. In Ceará, Brazil, a law banning the sale and advertising of ultra-processed products in schools now protects nearly 1.8 million students. The law was won through public demonstrations and media outreach, and has since inspired similar policies across the region. In Jamaica, campaigns and advocacy we supported helped pass a National School Nutrition Policy covering more than 500,000 students.
Our Capabilities
We use strategic communication to improve school food environments, building support for strong policies that ban ultra-processed products and their marketing and set standards for healthier meals.
Brazil’s School Food Network
Formed in 2021, the School Meals Watch, known as ÓAÊ (Observatório da Alimentação Escolar), is Brazil’s main civil society network monitoring and mobilizing society around the importance of the National School Feeding Program (PNAE), amplifying the voices of students, family farmers and school nutrition professionals. We supported partners in implementing campaigns to improve PNAE.
