The challenge
Feeding about a million students daily with high-carbon menus and little local, sustainably farmed food.
The case
São Paulo’s city schools serve at least two meals a day to 995,755 children, young people and adults from 3,389 kitchens. A 2015 city law requires organic or agroecological food in school meals, bought mainly from family farmers, and at least 30% of ingredients now come from local family agriculture. The city’s Sustainable School Menu project, which won a 2022 C40 Bloomberg Philanthropies Award, sets targets to cut the carbon footprint of menus step by step. According to Bloomberg Philanthropies, it is projected to cut carbon emissions by over 18% by 2025. A 2025 study found that federal rules on who counts as a family farmer, and too little local production, held back purchases.
Why the results were mixed
A huge city buyer can steer demand toward small sustainable farms, but supply and eligibility rules set the real limit, and the emissions cut is still a projection.
Sources
- Bloomberg Philanthropies. Carbon Cutbacks: Supplying school lunches with sustainably farmed produce. Cities Idea Exchange.
- World Food Programme (2025). State of School Feeding Worldwide 2024, Map 1.2: City-level innovation in school meal programmes. WFP.
- Carolino, K., Meireles, E., Coelho Junior, M. G., Silva, F. M. da, & Sorrentino, M. (2025). Sustainable Government Purchasing: evaluation of the São Paulo school meals program. Ambiente & Sociedade, 28.
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