How school nutrition programmes can boost nutrition and drive transformation

The National School Nutrition Programme feeds more than nine million school children every day and remains one of South Africa's most meaningful interventions for supporting learning and reducing hunger. But with strategic partnerships, the programme could do far more, strengthening childhood nutrition while helping to drive transformation across the agriculture sector.

- Lindi Botha

As one of the country’s largest public investments in child well-being, the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) plays a vital role in keeping learners focused and fed, delivering a daily meal to more than nine million children in nearly 2 000 of the poorest schools. While the programme has earned praise for its reach and positive impact on learning, there is growing recognition that closer collaboration with the agriculture sector could unlock far greater value.

The NSNP is a government initiative run by the Department of Basic Education that provides at least one nutritious meal a day to learners in primary and secondary schools. Its core purpose is to support learning by ensuring that learners are adequately fed during school hours. Suppliers are contracted to source and deliver food to schools, where volunteer food handlers prepare the meals.

Although the programme has faced criticism over the past year for inadequate food provision, food fraud, and corruption, it is widely regarded as a success. Dr Marc Wegerif, senior lecturer and Development Studies Programme coordinator at the University of Pretoria, and a principal investigator for the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation and the National Research Foundation’s Centre of Excellence in Food Security, describes the NSNP as “one of the most important interventions in terms of food security in the country”.

“Speaking to parents and teachers, it is clear that it has an enormously positive effect on children's ability to learn. Without the programme, many children would spend the entire school day hungry. This success must be acknowledged so that the programme is protected and continues to be resourced," says Wegerif.