Home Grown School Feeding (HGSF) programmes particularly in Africa are not normally designed from scratch but first created by a country with the support of developing partners such as the Partnership for Child Development (PCD), the World Food Programme (WFP) and other stakeholders. HGSF then evolves as part of the transition to government ownership by linking existing school feeding programme demand with local agriculture production.
The Home Grown School Meals (HGSM) programme acts as a safety net strategy ‘to increase food supply, improve incomes and reduce hunger and malnutrition’. School Feeding Programmes can help to get children into school and keep them there, thus enhancing enrolments and reducing absenteeism; and once the children are in school, the programmes can contribute to their learning, through avoiding hunger and enhancing cognitive abilities.
