School Food
Tanzania does not have a nationally owned school meal programme; however, several initiatives provide meals to schoolchildren. Such initiatives are usually implemented or supported by local authorities, private entities and international organizations like FAO, UNICEF and the World Food Programme, and coordinated by the government. For instance, the government in collaboration with the World Food Programme, has set up National school feeding advisory institutions and international organizations to strengthen food and nutrition services in schools. Another example is the provision of agricultural inputs by FAO for supplying commodities for school meals in the Kagera Region. In addition, in 2021, the government with the support of FAO and the European Union launched a national nutrition campaign under the Agriconnect programme, to link smallholder farmers to 10 school meal initiatives in Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar.
In most schools, parents and caregivers provide financial and in-kind items for preparing the meals; while the government provides funds for purchasing foods to state boarding schools and to schools that are catering for students with special needs.
In 2021, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology launched its first National Guidelines on School Feeding and Nutrition Services to Basic Education Students (2020). These guidelines inform public and private schools, and local governments on how to establish, coordinate and manage school meals for aligning operational procedures in primary schools. The guidelines comprise five sections: school feeding and nutrition services; their implementation; roles and responsibilities; sustainability of school feeding; and monitoring and evaluation. Developing the guidelines represents an important step towards achieving a national school meal programme.
According to the national guidelines, school meals should comply with specific requirements depending on the time that students spend at school, age group (e.g., children aged 3-10 years or aged 11-18 years) and local availability of foods. The guidelines also emphasize the use of fortified foods where possible. Parents or caregivers are responsible for providing local cereals, legumes and nuts, and the school food committee should ensure the supply of other foods such as vegetables, fruits, oil, meat, milk and iodized salt.
The main characteristics of the National Guidelines on School Feeding and Nutrition Services to basic education students are summarized below:
| Users of the guidance |
|
| School food covered | School meals |
| Objectives | Main objective
|
| Basis | Food-based |
| Food groups covered | Cereals, roots and bananas, legumes, meat, milk, vegetables, fruits, fats/oils, sugar and salt |
Other school feeding initiatives include the School Milk Action Plan (2023-2028), which outlines the government’s plan to deliver a decentralized milk programme that also incentivizes income generation, employment opportunities and economic benefits for local communities. As of 2023, the programme reaches 99,000 children from 125 public and private schools. Products include milk, cultured milk or yoghurt, which are available for purchase from school canteens.
With regards to school gardens, there are also plans to establish nutrition clubs in schools for increasing awareness of growing micronutrient-rich foods (fruits, vegetables and biofortified crops). Project Concern International’s programme Chakula Chetu (“Our Harvest” in Swahili – closed in 2021) ran in 16 primary schools with a focus on school gardens as learning opportunities for students and communities, and for supplying school meals with produce.
In schools that do not provide meals, foods and snacks such as chips and samosas are sold by informal vendors. There are currently no nutrition guidelines or standards regulating what can be sold within school premises. However, the Tanzania Multi-sectoral Nutrition Action Plan (2021-2026) aims to develop such guidance in the future and to increase the number of schools around the country offering school meals.
Development process
In 2019, the Ministry of Education partnered with Project Concern International, an NGO that has been implementing school meal initiatives in pre-primary and primary schools in the Mara Region, on a study on the state of food and nutrition services in 120 schools from seven regions on the Tanzania Mainland. The study showed the need to improve services and to move away from relying exclusively on food donations from caregivers and the community. The Mara Regional Administration used the findings to develop a regional School Feeding Strategy. This prompted the Government of Tanzania to develop the country’s first National Guidelines on school feeding and nutrition services for basic education students (2020) with support from Project Concern International, a global NGO. The process was coordinated by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, with participation of representatives from the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre, National Kiswahili Council, academia, the World Food Programme and international NGOs (Nutrition International and Project Concern International). The Ministry of Education endorsed the guidelines in March 2020.
Implementation
An implementation plan for the national school feeding guidelines has been drafted by the President’s office of regional administration and local government, with technical support from the World Food Programme and the Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre. The plan outlines the first phase of capacity development for teachers, parents, community members, extension officers and community health workers. Once launched, the school and all relevant stakeholders (parents, community, educational institutions, Ministry of Education, development partners, private sector, etc.) will be responsible for ensuring that the meals provided are aligned with the guidelines.The Tanzania Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Action Plan (2021-2026) also refers to training health and nutrition teachers/coordinators, child-care workers and school committees for supporting the implementation of the school feeding guidelines, as well as for conducting school campaigns on nutrition and healthy lifestyles. The Department of Equity Programmes has also developed materials on food safety for school canteens and kitchens, such as safety and food control posters and signs to differentiate kitchen areas.
Monitoring and Evaluation
The national guidelines include indicators for monitoring and evaluating the implementation of school meals and nutrition services. The President’s Office Regional Administration and Local Government, the leaders of the local government and schools themselves are collectively responsible for the monitoring and evaluation tasks.Some examples of the indicators most relevant to the nutritional quality of the meals are:
Indicators for specific objective (2): “To guide on standard procedures and requirements for effective operationalization and enabling food availability in schools”
- Percentage of schools providing at least four food groups in a meal.
Indicators for specific objective (4): “To provide key actors with types and unit standards for the food and nutrition service for students”
- Percentage of schools with a weekly timetable indicating days when meals are served; and
- Percentage of day schools providing food service, five days a week.
- Percentage of primary and secondary schools providing at least one fortified meal to students.
- Percentage of primary and secondary schools producing micronutrient-dense foods in school gardens.
- Percentage of primary and secondary schools with active Nutrition Clubs.
- Percentage of primary schools implementing school milk feeding programmes.
In 2024, Global Communities Tanzania, an NGO will pilot a digital app for community-centered monitoring of school meals (called the school integrated models) in 10 schools in the Njombe Region. The app aims at improving communication between schools, parents, local farmers and other stakeholders, to ensure transparency in tracking contributions of food commodities for managing school meal activities and reporting.
- Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre
- MInistry of Education, Science and Technology
- Video on Community-Led School Feeding Model in Tanzania
- Video onPCI's School Feeding Program in Tanzania: Violet's Story (Swahili version)
There are several school meal initiatives supported by the Government and various organizations in Zanzibar, which is a partly self-governing state in Tanzania with its own development plans and governing bodies. One of these is the Government-funded breakfast programme, by which the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training supplies all public pre-primary schools, as of 2023 with porridge ingredients to be prepared on-site, such as wheat flour blended with sorghum, cowpeas and sugar or orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, and salt and cooking oil.
Another initiative is the home-grown school feeding programme, which has been implemented in two regions (Unguja and Pemba) since 2014 and is funded by Imperial College London UK’s and a non-governmental organization in Japan. The programme, which aims to alleviate children's short-term hunger, improve attendance, retention and academic performance, currently reaches 36 primary schools. The Ministry of Education in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Agriculture provide advice on the food groups to be included in the meals (cereals/roots/tubers/and green bananas; pulses, legumes and animal source foods; vegetables and fruit; and oils, sugar and honey). Smallholder farmers are contracted to supply some ingredients for the meals such as sorghum, cowpeas, orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, sugar, cooking oil and salt. Results from the Zanzibar Home-Grown School Feeding Programme 2020 report showed an increased school enrollment and retention, reduced absenteeism and improved performance amongst schoolchildren.
The Ministry of Education in collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP) has recently developed the Zanzibar National School Feeding Guidelines for pre-primary, primary and secondary education that are pending to be implemented in all schools.
The main characteristics of the school feeding guidelines are summarized below:
| Users of the guidance |
|
| School food covered |
|
| Objectives |
|
| Basis | Food-Based |
| Food groups covered | Only covering foods for the main meal: fortified maize meal, fortified vegetable oil, avocado, green vegetables, beans, iodized salt and milk. |
| Other guidance included | They also include recommendations on food management, storage, safety, hygiene, procurement, kitchen infrastructure, school environment, physical activity, etc. |
The Zanzibar Multisectoral Nutrition Strategic Action Plan (2021/2022–2025/2026) highlights school meal programmes as one of the key performance indicators of the Zanzibar Education Development Plan. The strategy’s workplan includes developing and disseminating the Zanzibar National School Feeding Guidelines Manual, as well as training teachers and school management committees on these guidelines as outputs.
Other types of school food in Zanzibar include snacks sold by vendors with permission to sell foods in primary and secondary schools. As of 2023 there are no guidelines or standards to regulate what can be sold in and around the school premises.
Development process
In 2023, the Government of Zanzibar, in collaboration with the World Food Programme, developed school feeding guidelines, informed by the Zanzibar Food-Based Dietary Guidelines. These guidelines, which will be implemented in all schools, cover aspects of school meal preparation, health education, information and communication campaigns, healthy and safe school environments, planning, budgeting and procurement of food, physical activity, healthy eating, food management and kitchen infrastructure, etc.
Implementation
As the implementation of the school feeding guidelines has not yet started, there is currently no strategy to apply them in schools. However, the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training is responsible for coordinating school feeding initiatives. In conjunction with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Health, it has developed materials to calculate meal portions for children and inform about nutritional requirements, cooking time, food safety and standards.
Monitoring and Evaluation
Cooks and parents are responsible for providing food to schoolchildren while the head teachers are responsible for monitoring and ensuring that students have been given the meal. In general, Zanzibar does not have a monitoring and evaluation plan for current school feeding initiatives or projects; however, according to the school feeding guidelines:
- All primary schools should have a functional monitoring and evaluation system to track the implementation of school feeding programmes;
- The right indicators should be aligned with the stated objectives of the school feeding programmes;
- The Ministry of Education in collaboration with other stakeholders should inspect schools regularly to ensure compliance with the school feeding guidelines; and
- Pre-primary, primary and secondary schools must enter school feeding data in the School Data Management System.
Relevant Links
Articles
WFP extends operational presence to Zanzibar to enhance support to Tanzania’s development
14/12/2022
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has today announced the expansion of its programme to Zanzibar, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, some 25 to 50 kilometres off the coast of mainland Tanzania - as part of its new five-year Country Strategic Plan (2022-2027).
Innovative School Feeding Programme to Combat Extreme Poverty in Zanzibar
30/05/2014
On Wednesday 28 May the Government of Zanzibar launched a new innovative Home Grown School Feeding (HGSF) programme in collaboration with the Partnership for Child Development (PCD) and Table for Two to feed over 5000 school children, whilst simultaneously supporting local smallholder farmers by sourcing their produce for the school meals.