ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Health Economics
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1542861
This article is part of the Research TopicPublic Health Outcomes: The Role of Social Security Systems in Improving Residents' Health WelfareView all 33 articles
Free School Meals and Educational Outcomes: Evidence from China's Nutrition Improvement Program
Provisionally accepted
- 1Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan, China
- 2University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (UCASS), Beijing, Beijing, China
- 3Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei Province, China
- 4Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China
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The education gap between urban and rural areas has long been a significant challenge for developing countries. This study evaluates the impact of China's large-scale Nutrition Improvement Program (NIP) on the educational outcomes of rural children, investigating the root causes of the urbanrural education divide from the early stages of human capital development. Using data from the China Family Panel Studies (2010-2020), we reveal three notable findings: (1) NIP has significantly boosted rural children's language grades by 0.223 standard deviations and math grades by 0.172 standard deviations. Over the long term, NIP raised the high school enrollment rate by 8.2%. (2) Heterogeneity analysis indicates that NIP is more effective for relatively disadvantaged groups, such as girls, younger children, and children from low-income families. (3) NIP enhances children's educational outcomes by improving children's nutritional intake, strengthening cognitive and non-cognitive abilities, reshaping family educational expectations, and increasing families' investment in education. Our findings provide valuable insights for refining public policies and contribute significantly to advancing educational equity across regions.
Keywords: Free school meals, educational outcomes, nutritional improvement, Family background, Educational equality
Received: 10 Dec 2024; Accepted: 22 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lilyma, Ma, Zou and Fan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Yanna Ma, University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (UCASS), Beijing, Beijing, China
Zengzeng Fan, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, 450001, Henan Province, China
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