A new Lebanon school nutrition assessment has found widespread dietary gaps among schoolchildren. Researchers report insufficient intake of key micronutrients and heavy reliance on low-cost, calorie-dense foods amid the country’s prolonged economic crisis.
The study surveyed diets and, where available, school meal provision across a sample of schools. It found that many children’s diets fall short of recommended intakes for iron, vitamin A and other micronutrients important for growth and cognitive development. Researchers linked the pattern to household economic pressure. Families are increasingly substituting cheaper, less nutrient-dense staples for more expensive fruits, vegetables and animal proteins.
Economic crisis reshapes what children eat
Lebanon’s currency collapse and prolonged economic crisis began in 2019 and has persisted through repeated shocks. These include the 2020 Beirut port explosion and ongoing political instability. The crisis has sharply reduced household purchasing power. Researchers say the nutrition study reflects that broader economic reality. Many families report they have cut back on meat, dairy and fresh produce in favour of bread, rice and other cheaper carbohydrate staples.
School meal provision, where it exists, varies significantly between public and private institutions, the study found. Many public schools lack the resources to offer consistent meal programmes at all. Where meals are provided, researchers noted they do not always meet basic nutritional adequacy standards. That gap reflects budget constraints rather than a lack of awareness about nutrition needs.
Calls for a coordinated response
Public health researchers involved in the assessment are calling for a more coordinated national response. That could include fortification of staple foods and targeted support for school feeding programmes in the most economically stressed areas. They note that nutritional deficits in childhood carry long-term consequences for cognitive development and long-run health outcomes. Early intervention matters, they argue, even amid broader economic constraints.
International and local health agencies have previously flagged rising malnutrition risk in Lebanon since the onset of the economic crisis. The new school-based findings add a more granular picture of how that risk is playing out among children specifically. Researchers say addressing the gap will require both immediate nutrition support measures and a broader economic recovery that restores household purchasing power. They acknowledge that the latter remains largely outside the control of the health sector alone.
Teachers interviewed as part of the Lebanon school nutrition assessment reported noticeable changes in classroom behaviour that they attributed to poor diets, including reduced concentration and higher absenteeism in the final hours of the school day. Several schools have experimented with informal solutions, such as asking parent associations to contribute fruit for shared snack times, though organisers acknowledge these efforts reach only a small fraction of affected students.
Researchers involved in the study said they plan to repeat the assessment on a rolling basis. That would track whether any stabilisation in Lebanon’s currency and broader economy translates into measurable dietary improvement among schoolchildren. They describe the current findings as a baseline against which future progress, or further deterioration, can be measured.
Some private schools have begun partnering with local farms to supply subsidised fresh produce for canteens, an arrangement a handful of principals described as a stopgap rather than a systemic fix. Public health officials say replicating such partnerships at scale would require funding and logistics support that remain largely absent from current budget plans, leaving the broader Lebanon school nutrition gap dependent on wider economic recovery for now. Donor agencies contacted for the assessment said they were reviewing whether existing humanitarian budgets for Lebanon could be redirected toward school-level nutrition support without displacing other urgent programmes.
