Home Grown School Meals (HGSF) Zambia.
89 Corner Of Chimanga And Mogadishu Road, Lusaka, Zambia
Availability, Accessibility, Affordability, Prices, Social Capital
National
Citizens/Consumers, Businesses, Public Sector
Ongoing
The policy aims to provide nutritious school meals sourced from local farmers, thereby improving child nutrition, encouraging school attendance, and strengthening local agricultural markets. It connects schools with smallholder farmers to ensure sustainable food provision. It also aims to increase school attendance and retention for both boys and girls.
The program was introduced to address child malnutrition, low school attendance, and weak rural agriculture markets. It was developed in collaboration between the Zambian government, WFP, and other partners to links school feeding programs with local food production. The WFP-supported School Meals Programme started in 2003 in Zambia, by providing a hot nutritious meal of High Energy and Protein Supplements to children enrolled and attending classes in targeted schools. Since 2011 Zambia’s SF programme has gradually transitioned to a HGSF programme.
The Ministry of General Education oversee implementation, with monitoring support from WFP and local authorities to track school attendance, nutrition outcomes, and farmer participation.
The program is implemented by providing daily school meals across participating school meals across participating schools using food sourced locally. Results include improved school attendance, better nutrition for children, and increased income for smallholder farmers. Challenges include ensuring consistent food supply and adequate funding. The HGSF is implemented in both public and community schools. In 2016, the programme supported 977 000 beneficiaries in 2 591 schools (out of more than 8 800 schools), accounting for approximately 25 percent of all children enrolled in primary and pre-primary schools, with parity between boys and girls.