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STORY: UN / STATE OF SCHOOL FEEDING
TRT: 03:56
SOURCE: UNIFEED / WFP
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT WFP FOOTAGE ON SCREEN
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 10 SEPTEMBER 2025, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Med shot, UN Headquarters
10 SEPTEMBER 2025, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, speakers, journalists, press room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Carmen Burbano, Director, School Meals Coalition Secretariat / Director of School Meals and Social Protection, World Food Programme (WFP):
“Today, we are announcing that 466 million children are receiving meals in schools. This is the largest food assistance program for children worldwide. The good news is that over the last four years, an additional 80 million - eight zero - 80 million children have received meals compared to where we were in 2020, this is unprecedented progress. We have not seen a scale up of a program of this magnitude in at least a decade, and most of it is due to government mobilization and domestic investments.”
3. Wide shot, journalists
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Carmen Burbano, Director, School Meals Coalition Secretariat / Director of School Meals and Social Protection, World Food Programme (WFP):
“Of those 80 million children that are being reached in addition to what was already done in 2020, about 60 percent of those are in low income countries, which tell us that even through fiscal crises and through financial hardship, low income countries where children need these programs the most, are making enormous efforts to make sure that their children are protected during crises and their futures are secured.”
5. Wide shot, speakers, journalists
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Carmen Burbano, Director, School Meals Coalition Secretariat / Director of School Meals and Social Protection, World Food Programme (WFP):
“Africa is the continent with the most impressive progress. More than 20 million children are additionally receiving meals in schools in the continent.”
7. Wide shot, speakers, journalists
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Carmen Burbano, Director, School Meals Coalition Secretariat / Director of School Meals and Social Protection, World Food Programme (WFP):
“99 percent of the investment is coming from government budgets. This means that this is a program, this is a global priority, funded primarily by governments. Donor support accounts only for one or 2 percent of global investment in these programs.”
9. Wide shot, speakers, journalists
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Carmen Burbano, Director, School Meals Coalition Secretariat / Director of School Meals and Social Protection, World Food Programme (WFP):
“A large part of this success is owed to the political mobilization of the School Meals Coalition, which was launched in 2021 under the leadership of President Macron, the government of Finland and later President Lula of Brazil. The coalition now has more than 100 countries that have joined, most of them at presidential level, that have committed to ensuring that every child receives a healthy meal in school, and as you could see from the numbers we are publishing today, many, many of them, have mobilized towards that big goal.”
11. Wide shot, speakers, journalists
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Carmen Burbano, Director, School Meals Coalition Secretariat / Director of School Meals and Social Protection, World Food Programme (WFP):
“Even though low-income countries have expanded their coverage, they still lag behind overall when compared to high income countries. So, at this moment, only 30 percent of children in low-income countries have access to these programs, compared to 80 percent of children in high income countries. Moving forward, we are calling on all governments to expand access to these programs.”
13. Wide shot, speakers, journalists
FILE - PLEASE CREDIT WFP ON SCREEN - BOS THOM VILLAGE, CAMBODIA
14. Various shots, children in class, school, food, children eating their hot meal together, WFP funded school feeding programme
FILE - PLEASE CREDIT WFP ON SCREEN – PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI
15. Various shots, WFP meal preparation for school lunch, children eating lunch
FILE - PLEASE CREDIT WFP ON SCREEN – KAKUMA, KENYA
16. Various shots, Pupils eating lunch provided by the WFP School Feeding Programme
According to the World Food Programme (WFP), nearly 80 million more children are now supported by national school meal programmes worldwide, a 20 percent increase over 2020.
Nearly 80 million more children are now receiving school meals through government-led programmes than in 2020 — a 20 percent increase that brings the global total to at least 466 million children, according to the latest edition of The State of School Feeding Worldwide, a flagship biennial report released today (10 Sep) by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).
Addressing the press today (10 Sep) from Copenhagen, Carmen Burbano, WFP’s Director of School Meals and Social Protection said, “Today, we are announcing that 466 million children are receiving meals in schools. This is the largest food assistance program for children worldwide. The good news is that over the last four years, an additional 80 million - eight zero - 80 million children have received meals compared to where we were in 2020, this is unprecedented progress. We have not seen a scale up of a program of this magnitude in at least a decade, and most of it is due to government mobilization and domestic investments.”
She continued, “Of those 80 million children that are being reached in addition to what was already done in 2020, about 60 percent of those are in low income countries, which tell us that even through fiscal crises and through financial hardship, low income countries where children need these programs the most, are making enormous efforts to make sure that their children are protected during crises and their futures are secured.”
Africa is leading the surge with an additional 20 million children now fed through national school meals programmes – with notable progress in Kenya, Madagascar, Ethiopia, and Rwanda.
Burbano said, “Africa is the continent with the most impressive progress. More than 20 million children are additionally receiving meals in schools in the continent.”
She highlighted, “99 percent of the investment is coming from government budgets. This means that this is a program, this is a global priority, funded primarily by governments. Donor support accounts only for one or 2 percent of global investment in these programs.”
She continued, “A large part of this success is owed to the political mobilization of the School Meals Coalition, which was launched in 2021 under the leadership of President Macron, the government of Finland and later President Lula of Brazil. The coalition now has more than 100 countries that have joined, most of them at presidential level, that have committed to ensuring that every child receives a healthy meal in school, and as you could see from the numbers we are publishing today, many, many of them, have mobilized towards that big goal.”
She concluded, “Even though low-income countries have expanded their coverage, they still lag behind overall when compared to high income countries. So, at this moment, only 30 percent of children in low-income countries have access to these programs, compared to 80 percent of children in high income countries. Moving forward, we are calling on all governments to expand access to these programs.”
