Alleviating child hunger with supplementary meal programs

Principal Investigator: Dana Brown, Management
Project Title: Developing Evidence-based Approaches for Successful Implementation of Supplementary Meal Programs to Alleviate Hunger in Children
Funder: SSHRC Partnership Engage
Partner: The Akshaya Patra Foundation UK

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated rates of homelessness and child hunger across the world, and without intervention these children will not fulfill their potential and will not break the poverty-hunger cycle. Although there are pockets of innovation attempting to feed children nutritious meals across the world, their efforts are not coordinated. The evidence on effective practices, business models and impact is also lacking. Therefore, there is a need to address this information gap to provide evidence for public policy development and create standard practices for all aspects of program development, meal production, distribution and impact chains. The purpose of this research is to develop an understanding of effective practice in providing nutritious meals to children in need.