Healthy Bodies, Bright Minds: The Power of School Feeding Programs

Thailand is known for having one of the best nutritional programs in Southeast Asia. This success cannot be separated by some best practices and lesson learned in implementing school-based nutrition program including the how the government and university collaborated to the implementation of Thai-SLP and Thai school milk program (Thai-SMP). The Thai’s SLP and SMP models highlight the efficiency of the government in charge of the implementation.

The Ministries of Education, Interior, and Agriculture work together towards improving children’s health and nutrition, as well as the livelihoods of local farmers and producers. The Thai government has transformed Thai-SLP, which previously focused on the quantity of meals produced shifted to the meal quality and nutritional contents. The commitment of Thai government not only has been provided the financial support, but also for the sustainability and further enhancement of such programs for instance the agriculture for Thai-SLP.

Thailand embraces, maximizes, and works towards improving its agriculture. Small farmers are given enough attention, and students are encouraged to learn agricultural skills. It takes pride in supporting locally produced or home-grown foods.  The impacts of Thai-SLP and Thai-SMP implementation were documented such as the reduction of number of school dropouts, producing good health, saved budget for students’ families, supported the local farmers production especially dairy milk, and increase involvement from private sectors.

The sustainability is one of the key success of the programs. Associate Professor Kitti believes how to build mechanisms for families and communities to guarantee food security based on the Thai sufficiency economy philosophy proposed by the King Bhumibol Adulyadej serve the strengthening community networks and cohesion. Schools are envisaged as learning centers where community members, along with students and teachers, acquire new agricultural skills and knowledge.

Written by: Associate Professor Dr. Kitti Sranacharoenpong is a Professor at the ASEAN Institute for Health Development at Mahidol University in Thailand. He has been working with the Office of the Basic Education Commission (OBEC), Ministry of Education on Thai school lunch program (Thai-SLP) to set up a healthy school lunch campaign for their students more than a decade.