School meal programmes serving hundreds of millions of children globally are increasingly being examined for the welfare standards of the animal products they procure.
Public procurement through school feeding programmes represents a largely untapped lever for improving farm animal welfare at scale. When governments commit to sourcing higher-welfare animal products for schools, they send strong market signals, support better farming practices, and shape the values of the next generation. Budget constraints are real but can often be addressed through reformulation, reduced meat portions, or targeted subsidies.