Climate change is not only about heatwaves and floods. It is also changing the food on children’s plates. Around the world, nearly half a billion children depend on school meal programs. For many of them, the school lunch may be the most reliable meal of the day. But extreme weather, rising temperatures, and changing rainfall patterns are now putting these programs under pressure.
Jennifer Burney, a professor at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, studies how climate change affects food systems and children’s health. Her research shows that school meals are closely connected to climate change in ways many people may not realize. Climate change is reducing food production. Farmers in many parts of the world are growing less food than they could have without climate change.
Hotter temperatures, longer dry spells, and unpredictable rains are lowering crop yields. This means fewer grains, fruits, and vegetables are available. At the same time, the global food system itself adds to climate change. Cutting down forests for farmland, raising livestock, using fertilizers, transporting food, and packaging it all release greenhouse gases. Food actually accounts for about one-third of human-caused emissions.
Land-use changes, such as turning forests and grasslands into farms, make up a large share of those emissions. This creates a harmful cycle. Climate change makes farming harder. To produce more food, people may clear more land or intensify farming, which leads to even more emissions. That makes climate change worse and increases the risk of hunger. School meals matter for children and economies. Children are especially vulnerable to hunger and poor nutrition.
Even short periods of malnutrition can harm their growth, learning, and long-term health. Because children depend on adults and institutions for food, school meal programs play a crucial role in protecting them. These programs are large and expensive, but they also bring big benefits. In the United States, the government spends about $18 billion each year on school meals. The economic and health benefits are estimated to be more than $40 billion annually. Families save on health care costs, and children tend to perform better in school and earn more later in life.
But climate change is threatening these gains. When crop yields fall and food prices rise, school meal budgets do not stretch as far. Supply chains can also be disrupted by extreme weather. This is especially difficult in low-income countries, where programs already operate on very tight budgets. Preliminary findings show real impacts. Burney and her colleagues studied how climate change is affecting foods commonly served in school meal programs worldwide. They looked at past climate data, crop productivity, menus, and the size of national programs to understand the risks.
Their preliminary findings are worrying. Because of climate-related declines in crop yields and food availability, school meal programs are currently serving at least 1 million fewer children than they could have without climate change. The researchers also found that the typical program operates on a tiny budget of about 35 cents per child per day. With so little money, even small increases in food prices can mean fewer meals for children.
Burney describes this as a current problem that is likely to get worse in many places if climate change continues. Governments can use school meals to drive change. More than 100 countries now include school feeding programs in their national budgets. Many also have climate and environmental goals. However, most programs focus mainly on feeding as many children as possible at the lowest cost. Burney believes there is a bigger opportunity.
If the government buys healthy and eco-friendly foods for schools, it can change how food is grown. This demand can push farmers to use sustainable and resilient methods. With help from the Rockefeller Foundation, Burney has connected school meal leaders and researchers from Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
The goal is to explore how food sourcing can improve both nutrition and climate resilience. Simple farming changes can help. Using cover crops, less tillage, and healthier soil retains moisture, prevents erosion, and stores carbon. The team estimates that if these methods were widely adopted, crop productivity and resilience would improve. This could lower food costs enough to allow school meal programs to serve up to 8 million more children without increasing their budgets. Researchers found that some rare grains and legumes withstand heat and drought. Adding them to school meals boosts nutrition and climate resilience.
In the end, school meal programs do more than fill stomachs. They support children’s health, education, and future opportunities. With smart policies and climate-aware farming, they could also become a powerful tool to build a more sustainable and resilient food system for the next generation.
