Rwanda is turning its expanding school feeding programme into a source of demand for local agriculture, linking millions of school meals with smallholder farmers and food suppliers across the country.
The programme now provides meals to almost 4.8 million students, making it one of Rwanda’s largest public investments in nutrition and education. But its impact is extending beyond classrooms as policymakers and food organisations seek to strengthen local procurement and connect schools more closely with farmers.
Rwanda's national school feeding policy requires that meals prioritise locally produced foods, while procurement is decentralised to districts. Food purchased includes staples such as maize, beans, rice and cooking oil, alongside vegetables and animal-source foods.
One example is Solid’Africa, a Rwanda-based food organisation that supplies schools through a farm-to-plate model. The organisation purchases directly from more than 7,000 local farmers, aggregates produce and distributes meals containing 17 different ingredients to schools.
The model is also creating a more predictable market for farmers. Solid’Africa reports that participating farmers have recorded average income increases of about 61%, with advance purchasing agreements helping producers secure demand before harvest.
Other initiatives are building similar links. Gardens for Health International supports school feeding activities across 180 schools in nine districts, with school gardens supplying an estimated 60-80% of the vegetables used in participating meals.
The government is also encouraging greater community ownership through the Dusangire Lunch initiative, under which parents, cooperatives, private institutions and other Rwandans contribute to school meals. More than four million students now receive daily meals, according to Rwanda's Ministry of Education.
The approach reflects a broader shift in African school feeding, in which governments are using public meal programmes to support domestic food systems. Across sub-Saharan Africa, the number of children receiving government-led school meals increased from 66 million in 2022 to about 87 million in 2024.
For Rwanda, the challenge now is to ensure that expanding demand translates into reliable opportunities for more farmers while maintaining food quality, affordability, and nutritional diversity.
NBF Insight
Rwanda is showing how a school meal can become an agricultural market. When public institutions buy food locally and plan procurement around farmers, school feeding can provide something smallholders often lack: predictable demand. The bigger opportunity is building enough aggregation, storage, financing, and quality systems to allow more farmers to supply that market consistently.
