276,000 children, one hot lunch a day: Sierra Leone pays for its own school meals

In Sierra Leone, the school bell now comes with lunch — and the government is picking up the bill. The country has committed SLE 158.4 million (about $6.6 million) through its education ministry to the National School Feeding Programme, delivered with the UN World Food Programme. The money means daily hot, nutritious meals for more than 276,000 schoolchildren through the 2026/2027 school year — up from 257,000 children in more than 1,200 schools last year. The programme buys its food locally under the Feed Salone strategy, so the same lunch that keeps a child in class also creates a market for more than 22,000 smallholder farmers.

SDG 2 · Zero hunger — Mechanism: institutional program