School feeding programs: Improving effectiveness and increasing the benefit to education.

“Learning is critically linked with children’s health and nutrition. School Feeding Programs (SFPs) can improve educational effectiveness by reducing hunger, motivating parents to enroll children in school, enhancing cognition, and increasing community involvement.
This guide is designed for program managers creating new or seeking to improve SFPs. The authors provide seven recommendations for school feeding program design: building consensus, developing targeting criteria, analyzing alternative financing options, developing guidelines for meal composition and timing, identifying potential bottlenecks, monitoring, and integrating SFPs with other programs. The appendix includes an annotated bibliography of SFP research as well as estimated program costs for some countries in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa.”