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On September 16th, 2025, the Ministry of Education, Higher Education and Vocational Education announced that 32 billion rupees will be allocated to a national school meal program. Despite the increase in budget, it might not be enough to sufficiently address Sri Lanka’s ongoing food crisis.
How the Cost-of-Living Crisis Fuels Food Insecurity
COVID-19 and the overwhelming economic crisis has left Sri Lanka with a lasting food insecurity crisis. Global economic systems make food a key commodity instead of a basic right. When access to food is tied so closely to the economy, a collapse brings about widespread food crises. During Sri Lanka’s national economic crisis in 2022, 28% of Sri Lankans were reported as being food insecure. A report from The World Bank in 2022 placed Sri Lanka 5th in a ranking of countries with the worst food price inflation. At the peak of the crisis, the monthly cost of a nutritious diet rose by 156 percent.
As more households continue to feel the burden of the extra costs, the use of food-based coping strategies and livelihood-based coping strategies are becoming more prevalent. Food-based coping can range from buying less preferred or less expensive food to reducing the number of meals. Livelihood-based coping strategies can involve borrowing money, skipping debt payments, selling household assets or selling homes entirely. With the Sri Lanka economy making a slow albeit steady recovery, the food security situation appears to be improving. As of last year, 16% of household being assessed as food insecure. However, the untold fallout from Cyclone Ditwah could see many households slide back into a period of severe food insecurity.
National School Meal Programme
Arguably, the government’s most committed initiative to combating food insecurity can be found in the education system. In spring of last year, the Sri Lankan government announced a free school meal program for all primary students grades 1 to 5. To date, the program currently feeds 1.4 million school children from grades 1-5. Under the program, each child is provided one meal during the first hour of school that allots to approximately Rs. 110 per child. Meals typically comprise of fruit and sources of protein – oftentimes either fish or egg.
The lack of reliable, affordable and nutritious meals has caused a detrimental malnutrition issue for the youngest demographics in Sri Lanka. It is a common mistake for people to think of malnutrition and being underweight as being synonymous. Malnutrition can lead to children and youth being overweight as well. Although undernutrition is still far more prevalent in Sri Lanka. UNICEF reports that one in four children from the ages 5-17 were underweight in Sri Lanka as of 2022. Other sources report an increase of 21.0% to 26.8% in school children in a critical state of underweight or wasting from 2023 to 2024. The national average of obese and overweight students has also increased during that period, by 0.4% and 1% respectively.
Aside from the physical damage from lack of food, malnutrition and food insecurity can negatively impact children on a social and psychological level. Lack of food can lead to lower school attendance and performance as students find it harder to concentrate. Children might also refrain from playing with other children as they lack the energy to do so. Long-term poor performance in school can severely limit a child’s academic and career opportunities in the future. Fortunately, several schools around the island involved in the National School Meal Programme have seen attendance soar after implementing the program.
School meal programs have the added bonus of boosting the economy by benefiting local farmers. Projects like the Home-Grown School Feeding Programme by the World Food Programme go beyond just ensuring that school meals meet the bare requirements of nutrition. The Home-Grown School Feeding Programme connects local farmers to schools to provide children with local and sustainably grown fruits, vegetables and protein. According to WFP, 3000 local school meal providers participated in the Home-Grown School Feeding programme. The popularity of this programme proves that meal programmes can successfully incorporate local community members and local systems of agriculture into schools.
Next Steps in Addressing Food Insecurity
While the National School Meal Programme is responsible to providing many children with a nutritious meal to start the day, plenty of children continue to study at school hungry. Despite the new budget for the school meal program being double that of the previous’ year, the current program only covers 1.4 million out of the approximately 3.9 million school children reported. However, considering the recent devastation from Cyclone Ditwah, the school meal programme could end up being a lifeline for the millions of survivors, especially those who find themselves displaced and without their typical means of income. In the aftermath of the storm, prices for fresh produce have risen drastically, and are expected to keep rising as many freshly planted crops have been lost to flooding and landslides.
The damage of Cyclone Ditwah not only on infrastructure, but on the education, agriculture, fisheries systems, highlights the immediate need for progressive climate action. Long-term solutions for addressing the food crisis need to confront the societal and environmental factors that limit food availability in Sri Lanka. Changes in rainfall, drought, and rising temperature are on track to repeatedly damage domestic agriculture, causing farmers and fisheries produce less. Lack of local produce, livestock, and seafood worsen the issue by increasing the price of food (either through food inflation or a reliance on imports) and decreasing the income of small-scale producers. Fortunately, sustainable eco-friendly solutions are starting to be implemented in certain schools, like renewable energy sources, such as solar panels and electric pressure cookers.
Organizations outside of the government are also working to supplement the current program. The Pathfinder Foundation and India’s Akshaya Patra Foundation announced plans this spring to establish a mid-day meal program in selected Colombo schools. School based programmes were by far the biggest beneficiaries of the World Food Programme’s initiatives in Sri Lanka in 2024. Hopefully, as more aid gets invested to rebuild after the cyclone, more initiatives will be introduced to combat food insecurity outside of the classroom as well.
Photo credit – Mackenzie Campbell
