The objective of this paper is to estimate the programmatic costs and cost-efficiency associated with providing food through schools in food-insecure, developing-country contexts, by analyzing global project data from the World Food Programme (WFP).

Conclusions found that the choice of the programme objectives will to a large degree dictate the food modality (biscuits, cooked meals, or take-home rations) and associated implementation costs. Fortified biscuits can provide substantial nutritional inputs at a fraction of the cost of school meals, making them an appealing option for service delivery in food-insecure contexts. Both costs and effects should be considered carefully when designing the appropriate school-based intervention. The costs estimates in this analysis do not include all school-level costs and are therefore lower-bound estimates of full implementation costs.