Sri Lanka has held its first National School Meal Forum, bringing government ministries, development partners, academia and other national stakeholders together to discuss how the country’s school feeding programme can be put on a more sustainable footing.
The forum was convened on 2 October by the Ministry of Education, Higher Education and Vocational Education in partnership with Save the Children, under the theme “National Dialogue: Charting the Way Forward”. Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya, who also holds the education portfolio, attended.
School feeding is not a new commitment in Sri Lanka. Programmes date back to 1931, and the ministry currently provides meals to more than one million children in Grades 1 to 5 across over 8,000 government schools. Officials say the daily meal supports attendance, concentration and classroom participation as well as nutrition.
“Sri Lanka has a long-standing commitment to ensuring children have access to nutritious meals at school,” said B. W. G. Dilhani, Director of Education at the ministry’s School Health and Nutrition Branch. “As we look to strengthen and sustain the National School Meal Programme, greater coordination across sectors and stronger partnerships will be essential.”
The emphasis on coordination reflects a programme that depends on several funding and supply streams at once, and which has come under strain in recent years. The Prime Minister told World Food Programme officials in August that school nutrition would have to go beyond free meals to teach dietary habits if it were to address the causes of non-communicable diseases.
No new funding commitment or policy decision was announced at the forum.
