This research seeks to improve the environmental sustainability of school meals in Sub-Saharan Africa by developing a practical tool to guide Planet Friendly procurement practices and HGSF approaches and support the transition to more sustainable food systems. School meals present a unique opportunity to tackle the various food system challenges, including the depletion and pollution of natural resources, habitat and biodiversity loss, deforestation, ocean acidification, and climate change, while delivering multiple social and economic benefits towards sustainable food systems for healthy diets. Despite these advantages, the approach is challenged by the lack of evaluation tools and metrics that can be used to quantify the level of “planet friendliness” in the different regions the Home Grown School Feeding approach is applied. Through evaluation of the current school meal supply chain in Sub-Saharan Africa, this study identifies practices in food production, transport, processing, and storage which may influence the impact of school feeding programs on planetary health.
