Rwanda has a school meal programme that covers children from pre-primary to secondary level. As of 2023, there are some school feeding operational guidelines to support menu development. According to these, other school meals and school food is not permitted o be served and sold in and around the school premises.
School Food
In Rwanda, the provision of school meals began in secondary boarding schools with the advent of formal education. In 2014, the provision of meals expanded to include secondary day schools. By 2016, the World Food Programme (WFP) began supporting primary schools through a home-grown school feeding model. That same year, the Ministry of Education started drafting a national school feeding policy, which was approved in 2019. As of 2019, 600,000 secondary school students were beneficiaries of the school meal programme.
Since 2020, the policy, which aims at addressing malnutrition and improving the human capital index, has been scaled up with an increasing budget each year.
According to the 2022/2023 Education Statistical Yearbook, the number of school feeding beneficiaries increased to 4.2 million, up from 3.3 million in 2021, when the programme was expanded to include both pre-primary and primary schools. Currently, the school meal programme benefits approximately 4 800 government, government-aided schools, ranging from pre-primary to secondary levels. Significant efforts have been made since 2021 to improve infrastructure in some pre-primary and primary schools, including the construction of kitchens to prepare meals on-site.
As of 2023, Rwanda operates three school meal programmes:
The national school meal programme for pre-primary, primary and secondary schools.
The home-grown school feeding programme in 32 schools, supported by the World Food Programme (WFP).
The one-cup-of-milk per-child programme in early childhood development centers.
The national school meal programme is managed by the Ministry of Education in a decentralized manner. The government allocates funds to 30 districts, each responsible for local procurement of long-shelf-life food items, such as maize flour, rice, maize, beans, salt, and cooking oil . Once procured, the food is cooked on-site at the schools. To improve the programme's management, the government established a parental contribution system: parents of pre-primary and primary schools contribute 10% of the food costs in kind (with the government covering 90%), while parents of secondary school students contribute 90% (with the government covering 10%). These contributions include vegetables, firewood, cutlery, and other essential items for school cooking.
In 2021, the Ministry of Education published the Rwanda school feeding operational guidelines, which detail recommended procedures for school meal menu development, budgeting, food storage, food management, kitchen and cook requirements, as well asmonitoring and evaluation procedures. Schools are required to follow these guidelines when developing their menus.
According to the guidelines, canteens and cafeterias are not permitted in schools, nor are food vendors allowed on and around school premises. This policy aims to ensure that all schoolchildren have equal access to food and consistent food quality.
The main characteristics of these operational guidelines are summarized below:
| Users of the guidance |
|
| School food covered | Meals provided as part of the school meal programme |
| Objectives | To guide the implementation of the National School Feeding programme |
| Basis | Food-based |
| Food-groups covered | Grain; roots and tuber; pulses; legumes and nuts; oils and fats; vegetables; fruits; and animal-source foods (meat, poultry, fish and eggs, dairy). |
| Other guidance included | They also include recommendations on serving meals, as well as what to do during and after mealtimes. |
Development process of the school feeding operational guidelines
The Rwanda school feeding operational guidelines (2021) were developed by the Ministry of Education based on the guiding principles of the National School Feeding Policy (2019) and the national Food-Based Dietary Guidelines.
According to the guidelines, school meals should be prepared prioritizing the use of locally produced foods and adhering to certain general recommendations. However, school feeding committees have the flexibility to decide on the specific menu.
The guidelines specify the proportion of children's daily energy and key nutrient requirements that school meals should provide, based on the time students spend at school as follows:
- Half day: 30-45%
- Full day: 60-75%
- Boarding: 100%
School meals should ideally provide at least five out of the following six groups:
| Food groups | Examples |
| Grains, roots and tuber | Maize flour, cassava flour, cassava root, sweet potato, rice, green banana, cooking banana/plantain, yam, Irish potato, or wheat |
| Pulses, legumes and nuts | Beans, lentils, groundnuts, peas |
| Oils and fats | Vegetable oil (Vitamin A fortified), palm oil |
| Vegetables | Dodo/Amaranth, spinach, cabbage, cassava leaf, pumpkin, eggplant, carrot, tomato |
| Fruits | Avocado, pineapple, banana, mango, papaya, orange, tangerine, watermelon |
| Animal source foods (meat, poultry, fish and eggs, dairy) | Eggs, fish, beef, goat, chicken, milk, yoghurt, cheese |
Implementation of the school feeding operational guidelines
School feeding committees, composed of elected members from the parents’ general assembly, oversee the implementation of the school meal programme. The head teachers, store managers and school cooks implement day-to-day activities.
The World Food Programme (WFP) aids Rwanda in capacity development and procurement activities in the seven districts where it operates (covering 32 schools from pre-primary to primary level). The Organization has trained 15 000 people in food safety, food preparation and management, primarily from the school feeding committees at the district level.
WFP has also assisted the government in developing a school feeding financing strategy, which is under cabinet approval as of mid 2024. According to the strategy, annual trainings for school cooks should be scheduled. However, due to funding limitations, this is not always possible. As of 2023, except for the seven districts managed by WFP, the Ministry of Education could only provide training for trainers (ToT).
Monitoring and evaluation of the school feeding operational guidelines
The District Education Office as well as the District Procurement Office are responsible for the monitoring and evaluation of the school meal programme, reporting key data on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis to the central government. The National Education Inspection Agency also conducts inspections at the school level to ensure compliance with the operational guidelines.
Additionally, an online school data management system (SDMS) tracks programme progress by reporting on several indicators. The system is currently being updated to include procurement aspects. Indicators reported relevant to nutrition quality of the meals include:
Number of students fed
Feeding days per academic year
Meal attendance
Food sources (where the food is obtained)
Varied meals (frequency of nutritious meals served)
Future plans for the school meal programme in Rwanda include improving the nutrition quality of meals served, increasing the number of school meal staff, and incorporating dining rooms in schools, as currently children typically eat in their classrooms.