Healthy food in schools can help children develop healthy dietary habits for life, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which released a new global guideline on evidence-based policies and interventions to create healthy school food environments. For the first time, WHO is advising countries to adopt a whole-school approach that ensures food and beverages provided in schools and available throughout the broader school food environments are healthy and nutritious.

Childhood overweight and obesity are rising globally, while undernutrition remains a persistent challenge. Schools are on the front line of this double burden of malnutrition. In 2025, about 1 in 10 school-aged children and adolescents – 188 million – were living with obesity worldwide, surpassing for the first time the number of children who are underweight.

“The food children eat at school, and the environments that shape what they eat, can have a profound impact on their learning, and lifelong consequences for their health and well-being,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “Getting nutrition right at school is critical for preventing disease later in life and creating healthier adults.”