Healthy, sustainable school meal programs can slash deaths by millions

New research is drawing attention to the role of healthy, sustainable school meals in significantly reducing undernourishment, diet-related deaths, and adverse environmental impacts.

The publication in Lancet Planetary Health suggests that such meal programs could reduce global undernourishment by 24% and prevent over one million diet-related deaths annually.

Additionally, the researchers say benefits could halve food-related environmental impacts and generate significant health and climate savings. 

Currently, only one in five children worldwide receives a school meal.

The new modeling study, led by a researcher from University College London (UCL) in the UK, presents four key action points for transforming the food system: curating diverse school menus, adopting modern cooking methods, reducing food waste, and providing holistic food education.

Furthermore, the research team is developing a toolkit that governments could use to transition toward sustainable school meals, with results possible by spring this year.

The new publication is part of a collection of papers from the Research Consortium for School Health and Nutrition, finding that well-designed school meal programs should be invested in for a healthier and more sustainable future.

Long-term health investment

The researchers emphasize that global food systems account for a third of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to the rise of malnutrition and diet-related diseases.

National school meal programs feed 466 million children daily. This already accounts for 70% of the global public food system. Researchers draw attention to this number as an opportunity to improve global nutrition.

Study lead and UCL’s Institute for Global Health professor Marco Springmann finds that providing a healthy, sustainable meal to every child by 2030 could have major nutrition benefits in food-insecure regions, benefiting 120 million people.

Additionally, these meals could prevent deaths from diabetes or coronary heart disease if children retain, even partially, food preferences into adulthood.

Springmann adds that emissions and land use could also be lowered when meals are designed, for example, to increase the portion of vegetables and reduce meat and dairy products.

“Our modeling shows that healthy and sustainable school meals can generate substantial health and environmental gains in every region of the world. Importantly, 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.”

Nutrition policy reforms

The team offers a framework to support governments on how school meals can propel systolic food systems transformation at large.

The four key pillars focus on improving children’s health and food literacy, boosting agrobiodiversity, stimulating local ecological production, and building climate-resilient food systems.

The researchers stress that the pillars must be utilized in public procurement rules, nutrition standards, and policy reforms.

“This framework highlights how school meals are not just a nutrition program — they are a powerful lever for transforming food systems,” says Dr. Silvia Pastorino, Diets & Planetary Health Lead for the Research Consortium. She is also a curator of the collection based at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. 

“When meals are healthy, sustainable, and linked to food education, they improve children’s well-being 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.”

Last year, efforts were made in different countries to support children’s nutrition needs. Jamaica took steps to ensure children’s health with the introduction of a National School Nutrition Policy. Spain mandated that all schools serve five healthy meals weekly, and Mexico also banned junk food at schools.