ArticlePublic health nutrition2022
Does a school snack make a difference? An evaluation of the World Food Programme emergency school feeding programme in Lebanon among Lebanese and Syrian refugee children.
Article in Public health nutrition, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- School-Based Nutrition Programs in the Eastern Mediterranean Region: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Pooled it
- A review on prospects, challenges, stakeholders and strategies for the implementation of school feeding programme in developing countries towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2026Review
- Increasing school attendance and retention in refugee settings: Participatory development of the SchoolLinks intervention.PloS one · 2026Article
- Development and validation of an educational comic book on healthy eating in early childhood.Journal of nutritional science · 2026Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo investigate the effects of providing a daily healthy school snack on children's nutritional, social and educational outcomes and explore stakeholders' perceptions of an emergency school feeding programme (SFP).
designConvergence triangulation mixed-methods study design. Associations were examined between receiving the school feeding intervention and children's outcomes using multivariable regression models. Quantitative data were complemented with interviews and focus group discussions with parents and staff.
settingIn vulnerable communities in Lebanon, the World Food Programme has implemented an emergency SFP targeting Lebanese (attending morning sessions) and Syrian refugee children (attending afternoon sessions) in public schools.
participantsChildren from ten intervention schools (morning n 403; afternoon n 379) and ten matched control schools (morning n 399; afternoon n 401), as well as twenty-nine parents and twenty-two school staff members.
resultsDiet diversity was higher in intervention schools as compared with control with a significantly higher consumption of dairy products, nuts and fruit in both sessions. Child-reported food insecurity experience was lower in children attending the afternoon session of intervention v. control schools. The SFP intervention was associated with higher school engagement and sense of school community in the morning session only. While the SFP was significantly associated with higher attendance for children in afternoon sessions only, it was significantly associated with school retention of children in both sessions.
conclusionsA daily healthy snack potentially acts as an incentive to improve children's nutritional outcomes, school engagement, sense of belonging, equality between students and improvement in children's attendance and retention in public schools.
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