MPs commit to create, expand and improve school meals

Denis Naughten TD speaks at the event to launch ‘School Meals: A Toolkit for Parliamentarians’

During the 149th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly - a meeting of representatives from 180 national parliaments in Geneva, Switzerland - parliamentarians shared their experience of the transformative power of school meals and pledged to do more to create, expand and improve school meals programmes.

The event saw the launch of a toolkit on school meals for Members of Parliament, which was published by the International Parliamentary Network for Education to support the work of the School Meals Coalition.

The launch was co-hosted by delegation to the Assembly from the parliaments of Ireland and Tanzania.

Opening the event, Ms. Carmen Burbano, the Director of the School Meals Coalition Secretariat and the Director of School Meals at the World Food Programme explained the far reaching benefits of school meals for communities and the progress that the School Meals Coalition is making.

“In 2022, 418 million children received school meals compared to 388 million before the pandemic. Also, between 2020 and 2022, global investments in school meals increased by 5 billion and more than ninety percent of that is coming from domestic investments,” said Ms Burbano.

Denis Naughten TD, a member of the Irish parliament, shared the Irish government’s commitment to expanding the provision of hot school meals. 

“Earlier this year the Hot School Meals programme grew from a small pilot and now over 345,000 primary school children are eligible to receive Hot Meals.

The government’s ambition is to complete the roll-out of Hot School Meals to all remaining Primary Schools as part of Budget 2025,” said Mr Naughten.

The Chair of the parliament’s Committee on Social Protection, Mr Naughten explained the value of cross party work which involved both houses of the parliament in securing wide ranging support for the programme.

An established advocate for nutrition and food security, Neema Lugangira, a member of the Tanzanian parliament, talked about the value of school meals in addressing multiple challenges.

“School meals improve children’s nutrition, support their physical development, provide an incentive for children to attend school and can be used to support local agriculture. In short they address multiple challenges from a single, well designed intervention,” said Ms Lugangira.

The examples provided by Ireland and Tanzania demonstrate the growing support for school meals much of which is being supported by the School Meals Coalition which consists of more than 100 member states and over 130 partners who share a commitment to providing children with a healthy, nutritious meal, every day at school.

“We heard today how parliaments have a crucial part to play in creating, expanding and improving school meal programmes” said IPNEd’s Director, Joseph Nhan-O’Reilly.

“Members of parliament can act as advocates for school meals, develop and pass laws, ensure the programmes are finanded properly and help ensure governments deliver efficient and effective programmes.

“The toolkit, which we’ve launched today during the 149th IPU Assembly , has been designed to accelerate the engagement of MPs in the global push to feed children at school.

“It provides members of parliaments with the evidence to make the case for school meals along with actionable advice and guidance.

“School meals offer exceptional returns on investment and can help some of the biggest public policy challenges countries face from child development through to climate change.

“We want to support members of parliament to harness their transformative power and deliver big wins to children, families, communities and countries in the process,” concluded Joseph.

The toolkit is available to download here.