Multidimensional Indicators for Sustainable School Feeding: A Scoping Review

In addition to influencing the growth and development of children and adolescents, school feeding plays a fundamental role in promoting sustainable diets and food systems. This scoping review aimed to identify the indicators used to assess the sustainability of school feeding programs. This review followed the recommendations of the Joanna Briggs Institute and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). The information sources included the Scopus, Web of Science, Medline via PubMed, Lilacs, and Embase databases. Additionally, references from the included studies were searched to identify potentially eligible studies, as well as full-text articles published in the proceedings of national and international conferences and institutional publications aligned with the topic. Full-text articles in any language that used at least 1 objective indicator to assess the sustainability of school feeding were included. The data synthesis focused on 3 topics: study characteristics, sustainability dimension measured, and indicators by sustainability dimension. A total of 34 reports, published between 2010 and 2024, were included. The environmental dimension was assessed in 31 reports, followed by the health-nutritional dimension, which was evaluated in 19 reports. The primary environmental indicator was greenhouse gas emissions, calculated through life cycle assessment. In the health-nutritional dimension, the most frequently used indicator was the nutritional composition of meals, based on energy (kcal), macronutrients, and micronutrients. Only 4 studies proposed scales or indices to assess the sustainability of school meals, but none integrated the multiple dimensions of sustainability. The environmental and health-nutritional dimensions were the most frequently observed, while few studies addressed the economic, sociocultural, and political dimensions or used scales and indices to measure the sustainability of school feeding, highlighting an important gap to be addressed in future research.