The School Meals Coalition (SMC) Global Database on School Meals is the global reference for data on school meal programmes and their broader areas of impact. As a key pillar of the Data and Monitoring Initiative (DMI), the database was established by mandate of the SMC member states to enhance access to high-quality data, support evidence-based decision-making, and strengthen accountability in school meals programming worldwide.

The database brings together data from trusted sources, including direct government data, the GCNF Global Survey of School Meal Programs, the State of School Feeding Worldwide reports, UNESCO, the World Bank, the African Union, the School Meals Coalition, the Cities Feeding the Future Initiative, and other partners.

It is continuously updated with new indicators, data, and evidence to reflect the evolving landscape of school meal programmes and their linkages to education, health, nutrition, food systems, social protection, and others.

We encourage users to make full use of the data for analysis, reporting, and advocacy. All data is publicly available and adheres to open data standards. When citing data from the Global Database on School Meals, please use the following format:

"Source: SMC Global Database on School Meals, [complete URL], [date of extraction]"

We welcome feedback and collaboration. Get in touch with us SMC.DataMonitoring@wfp.org