Social protection policies—such as cash transfers, school feeding, subsidized health and childcare, public works, pensions, and integrated livelihood programs—support mothers, the poor, elderly, and disabled. By providing immediate relief and access to services, income, and skills, these measures reduce vulnerability, improve nutrition and wellbeing, and enable longer-term transformative change in economic, social, and food system outcomes.

Countries can set standards and guidelines that prioritize nutritious (e.g. PHD aligned), locally sourced, and environmentally sustainable foods in schools and public institutions. They can provide funding, training, and technical support to implement these standards effectively, ensuring that procurement processes favor local farmers and sustainable suppliers. Such policies not only improve public health but also strengthen local food systems and promote sustainable agricultural practices. 

To do so, governments and partners must provide humanitarian food aid, cash transfers, and nutrition programs for vulnerable groups, ensure safe supply chains and market access, support local production with seeds and tools, enforce legal safeguards, and coordinate with UN agencies and NGOs. These measures secure immediate access while maintaining or rebuilding resilient food systems amid conflict. Strategic food reserves can be a crucial mechanism to uphold the human right to adequate and regular access to food. 

Brazil’s Federal Law No. 11,947 (2009) requires at least 30% of school meal funds to be spent on products from family farmers, prioritizing marginalized rural communities. This ensures fresher, locally sourced meals for students while strengthening short supply chains, boosting nutrition, and fostering sustainable rural development through a guaranteed institutional market for small-scale producers. This same law limits purchases of ultra-processed products to 10%.

Brazil’s food stock policy, managed by CONAB, maintains strategic reserves to stabilize prices, support farmers, and ensure food security. By purchasing surplus during harvests and releasing stocks during shortages, it reduces market volatility, guarantees supply for programs like the National School Feeding Program, promotes rural income stability, and integrates storage infrastructure investments.

The EU program Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD) aims to provide food and basic material assistance to the most deprived individuals in EU countries. It helps individuals take their first steps out of poverty and social exclusion, for instance providing food as an essential item.

In Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Tanzania, school feeding programmes integrate local foods—millet, beans, leafy greens—sourced through home-grown procurement. These programmes have improved school attendance and dietary quality while supporting local producers and reinforcing community-based food systems. 

Vietnam is promoting a dedicated law on school nutrition to standardise meals, nurturing children’s formative years for physical and intellectual development.