What Works in School Meals? Policy lessons from school meal programmes in Brazil and New Zealand

Abstract

The Ka Ora, Ka Ako Healthy School Lunches programme has been operating for six years, feeding one quarter of New Zealand’s students, with demonstrated early success; however, its future is not guaranteed. Brazil’s National School Feeding Programme represents one of the largest and longest-standing food provision initiatives in the world, currently feeding all students enrolled in public schools, and has seen massive success in lifting children out of malnutrition; national food insecurity rates are now lower than New Zealand’s. This study applied a policy analysis framework to compare the two programmes in terms of their content, actors, process and implementation context to distil key insights for New Zealand regarding building programme sustainability and legitimacy. We discuss how these two programmes evolved from different societal and governmental values, highlight mutual lessons to be learned, and provide insights for other school meal programmes worldwide.