How Planet-Friendly School Meals Can Nurture Healthier and More Sustainable Food Choices

Abstract

The blog How planet?friendly school meals nurture healthier and sustainable food choices highlights how traditional food systems contribute significantly to environmental degradation and climate change and argues that integrating sustainability into school meal programs offers a powerful opportunity to address interconnected challenges in nutrition, health, education, and environmental protection. It explains that planet?friendly school meals defined as meals that deliver nutritious, equitable food while safeguarding natural resources and biodiversity can improve children's diet quality, foster lifelong healthy eating habits, and contribute to food systems transformation when paired with comprehensive food education and clean cooking solutions. Drawing on examples from countries such as Brazil, France, Japan, Kenya, and Sweden, the blog emphasizes that well?designed school feeding programs can simultaneously support local economies, strengthen food sovereignty, and advance climate and biodiversity goals, highlighting key policy actions and systemic shifts needed to scale such approaches globally.