WFP, Ministry of Education and World Bank unveil preliminary results of impact evaluation for heathy school meals in Jordan

The evaluation comprised two main components. The first examines whether children receiving the healthy meals experience greater benefits than those receiving fortified date bars. The second component explores whether women employed by the programme, responsible for preparing the meals in community kitchens, experience any changes in their socio-economic status compared with women who were not offered a job by the programme.

Preliminary results indicate that the healthy meal model enhances children’s school attendance, dietary diversity, and energy levels. Among female kitchen workers, the findings reveal increased income, a greater willingness to participate in the labour market, and more openness among male spouses regarding female earnings.

“The impact evaluation reveals concrete improvements for vulnerable children and dedicated kitchen workers,” said Alberto Correia Mendes, WFP Representative and Country Director in Jordan. “Expanding the healthy meal model, informed by the positive results of the impact evaluation, would annually source USD 10 million worth of fruits and vegetables from nearly 1,500 local smallholder farmers, support the livelihoods of 450 bakers and workers, and employ 1,250 women in 50 kitchens across Jordan.”

“WFP reaffirms its commitment to continue supporting the Ministry of Education toward achieving an expanded, sustainable, and highly impactful school meals programme in alignment with Jordan’s National School Feeding Strategy,” he added.

Introduced in 2022, the healthy meal model provides nutritious school meals, including a freshly baked pastry, fruit, and a vegetable, to 90,000 vulnerable Jordanian and refugee children between the ages of 5 and 12 enrolled in public schools across six governorates. The meal ingredients are sorted and packaged daily in 11 community-based kitchens, providing formal employment to 250 vulnerable women. WFP and MoE also provide nutrition education, encouraging healthy eating habits among children and their parents.

WFP has been supporting the Ministry of Education in implementing the National School Feeding Programme, the largest social safety net for children in the country, since 2013. This academic year, a total of 520,000 of the most vulnerable Jordanian and refugee children are benefiting from the programme.

The impact evaluation, conducted in partnership with the World Bank’s Development Impact (DIME) department, is one pillar of the body of evidence that WFP and the Ministry of Education are investing in to inform and guide the expansion of the healthy meal model. The sample size included 473 schools and 599 applicant kitchen workers and their households. To identify the causal effects of the programme, the impact evaluation used a randomized controlled trial methodology for each component.

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The United Nations World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.

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