Ending malnutrition and making healthy food accessible is a critical component of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 2 – Zero Hunger)1. For us, this means making safe and nutritious food accessible to everyone, everywhere.
That is why, for more than 60 years we have collaborated with customers, governments, stakeholders, and NGOs in the development of School Feeding Programmes to improve health and access to nutritious beverages, reaching millions of children worldwide.
Each programme is different and the challenges – and opportunities – are evolving constantly. Combining our expertise on food safety and quality with the knowledge of our local stakeholders, we can provide guidance along the entire food value chain – from sharing best practices in programmes around the world, developing and launching fortified nutritious beverages to promoting environmental education and recycling of beverage cartons.
School Feeding and Nutrition Programmes have made a major impact on children’s physical health, development and learning outcomes as, for many children, food at school is often the first meal of the day. School feeding is a good investment. Efficient programmes yield returns of up to US$9 for every US$1 invested, creating value across multiple sectors including: education, health and nutrition, social protection and local agriculture2.
The School Milk Programme in Mexico is one of the longest running programmes in the world and it has made significant contributions to addressing challenges related to malnutrition, education, and food insecurity. School Milk Programmes often provide the first meal of the day for children and the Mexican programme is a flagship example of our work with School Feeding Programmes. That is why we share best practices from here with other programmes in 56 countries around the world where we participate.
1https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/hunger/
2https://www.wfp.org/school-feeding
3By positive impact we mean driving better outcome for our own workforce, workers and communities in our supply chain, workers in collection and recycling and people in our value chain affected by climate change and the transition to net-zero in the areas of labour, discrimination, hazardous working conditions and sustainable income, among others