用我们的话来说：学校膳食选择我们的未来

our future Table of contents What We See at SchoolEvery child we spoke with agreed thatschool meals are essential for health, learning, and well-being.Manyof us arrive at school without breakfast because our families cannot afford it. This makes it hard for us tofocus and our energy fades before the day is over.Some of us only eat cheap snacks from the school kiosk,but these are often unhealthy and overpriced,sometimes costing double what they do outside school. That’s whymany students simply go hungry.We spend around eight hours at school. That’s a large part of our day.Imagine going eight hourswithout eating?This shouldn’t be normal.Ensuring students aren’t hungry should be part of aschool’s responsibility.Hunger doesn’t just make it harder to study; it affects how we treat each other.Students who have foodsometimes bully those who don’t.When our classmates suffer from malnutrition, instead of helping themExecutive summary3What if we were truly heard?4Introduction5Children’s satisfaction with school meals8Learning, energy, attendance, and health10Clean plates, safe spaces12Children’s voices at the table13If we could change the meals…14Our voices matter. Our school meals matter. Our future matters.17Annex18 ways to improve school meals. The researchwas conducted between May and June 2025Executive summary experiences of 19 students, which included us aschild researchers.We all shared our views on why school mealsmatter, what is missing, and what we want to seeAcross 13 countries, 1,235 children shared their experiences of school meals with child researchers.Their voices carried a clear message:school meals matter to us. They can mean the differencebetween children being hungry and being able to focus, between dropping out and staying in class,between being overlooked and being heard. change. We spoke with students from differentbackgrounds, especially those living in the mostvulnerable communities where poverty and schooldropout rates are high.What We See at School© World VisionChildren highlighted the strengths of school meals programmes, as well as the gaps. Many valuedmeals that gave them energy and supported their learning, while others pointed out where food wasrepetitive, too little, or prepared unhygienically. They called for bigger portions, more variety, saferkitchens, and greater opportunities to be consulted. In Lebanon, where no national school mealsprogramme exists, children spoke of hunger, fatigue, and dropout, but also imagined a different reality:hot, healthy meals served with dignity, schools that nurture both body and mind, and a system thatupholds their right to education. Every child we spoke with agreed thatschool meals are essential for health, learning, and well-being.Manyof us arrive at school without breakfast because our families cannot afford it. This makes it hard for us toWhat stands out is that children are not passive recipients; they are agents of change who can offerconcrete solutions. They see school meals not only as food, but as a pathway to learning, health,participation, and belonging. For many, school meals are the reason they come to school and thereason they stay. Some of us only eat cheap snacks from the school kiosk,but these are often unhealthy and overpriced,sometimes costing double what they do outside school. That’s whymany students simply go hungry.Listening to their voices is not just a matter of respect, but about making programmes work better.When children help shape school meals, these programmes can nourish them today and help securetheir futures. We spend around eight hours at school. That’s a large part of our day.Imagine going eight hourswithout eating?This shouldn’t be normal.Ensuring students aren’t hungry should be part of aOur voices matter. Our school meals matter. Our future matters. school’s responsibility.On behalf of the 1,235 children who took part in this research We are a group of young students, aged 12-17,in the Al-Tebbaneh and Zehrieh areas of Tripoli,What if we were truly heard? like when there are no school meals. In Lebanon,By Giselle, child researcher and delegate, 15 years old, Brazil there is no national school-feeding programme,so schools do not provide free meals totheir students.We did this research because many people donot know this is a problem.We want to raiseThe research outlined in this report was done by childrenand young people, like myself, to show that our school yearsreally shape our futures. When governments care aboutchildren and young people,it gives us hope and strength tokeep fighting for a future that’s more beautiful than today. awareness among children, parents, schools, andthe government so that school meals becomea reality.This is part of a wider research project that bringstogether children from many countries to discussways to improve school meals. The researchwas conducted between May and June 2025using interviews and observations from theOver 1,000 children from 13 countries came together t