Linking Osun State, Nigeria's school feeding programme (O'MEALS) with local agricultural production stimulates the local economy by ensuring that expenditure on school feeding is injected directly into the community. The objectives of the O’MEALS programme with respect to agricultural development in the state are: to stimulate job creation, local goods production and to boost income of local farmers.

The State of Osun agriculture products include a mixture of: cereals; roots and tubers fruits and vegetables; legumes; industrial crops; forests and shrubs; and livestock and fisheries. The food items for feeding pupils are sourced locally by the cooks. The O’MEALS programme mandates developing the food ration with a menu based on the nutritional guidelines and requirements of school age children adjusted to accommodate seasonality, local availability and programme cost-efficiency.

Benefits of the O’MEALS programme:

Results from a survey carried out in June and July 2012 on the nutritional status of school children that participated in the O’MEALS programme has shown that:

• attendance improved at school as well as the performance of disadvantaged learners
• quality of life improved for children improved especially for rural children

However the linkage to small-scale farmers is unstructured and the menu needs to be diversified in the light of changing commodity prices and food availability. In view of this, the State of Osun with technical assistance from PCD is seeking to improve the standard of the menu by: reviewing nutritional objectives, methods of delivery, and sourcing and planning with local farmers on types of foods they need to produce to meet the educational and nutritional goals of the programme.