School lunches in Sweden are feeding more children than before, according to a new study by the University of Gothenburg (Göteborgs universitet) that draws on reports from school meal staff across the country. The study, published on 30 December 2025, links the increase in portions eaten at lunchtime to worsening household finances, and warns that children in economically vulnerable situations are at higher risk during school holidays, when the safety net of daily meals disappears.
More portions across the week, not just after weekends
School meal staff report that pupils are eating more portions than in previous years, and that higher demand now runs through the entire school week rather than peaking on Mondays and Fridays. The pattern suggests that food insecurity is becoming less episodic and more structural: the need is not limited to periods surrounding the weekend, but is present on ordinary weekdays.
In the study, education professor Ylva Odenbring says schools are seeing higher overall consumption because some children cannot eat enough at home. The finding adds a concrete, day-to-day indicator to Sweden’s broader cost-of-living pressures: when household budgets tighten, the free lunch served at school becomes a more central part of children’s nutrition.
Economic vulnerability makes holidays a pressure point
The study points to economic vulnerability as the key factor behind rising reliance on school meals, and notes that children are particularly exposed during school breaks. When schools close, daily routines change and families lose the one universal meal that is reliably available regardless of income.
Odenbring argues that the situation echoes the rationale behind the original expansion of school meals in Sweden: school lunches were designed to ensure that children could participate in education on equal terms. If children arrive at school hungry, they are more likely to be tired, struggle with concentration, and find it harder to engage with classmates.
From 1946 to the Education Act, a universal welfare service
Sweden introduced state support for school meals in 1946, with the aim of improving nutrition and reducing inequality. Today, free school lunches are embedded in the country’s education model: the Education Act (Skollagen) requires that pupils in compulsory schooling are served lunches that are free of charge and nutritious.
The policy is often framed as part of Sweden’s universal welfare infrastructure, rather than a targeted benefit for low-income families. That universality reduces stigma and ensures that every classroom includes children who have eaten—an approach that researchers have linked to both educational and long-term health and economic outcomes.
When charities fill the gap, schools see the limits of welfare
Beyond lunch, the study also highlights a growing need for breakfast before the school day starts. In some places, breakfast clubs run by the Swedish Red Cross (Röda Korset) have become a regular feature of school life.
The involvement of voluntary organisations is presented as a signal that existing welfare provisions are not fully cushioning the most exposed families. For municipalities and school organisers, it also raises practical questions: how to monitor need without singling out pupils, and how to coordinate support so that access to food does not depend on local fundraising capacity.
What Sweden could do next, and why Europe is watching
The study arrives at a time when children’s access to healthy nutrition is increasingly discussed at European level, including through the EU’s European Child Guarantee, which highlights access to education and at least one healthy meal each school day for children in need.
Sweden already meets the core school-day requirement through its universal model, but the study underlines a weaker point shared by many European systems: non-school periods. Policy options discussed in Sweden and elsewhere include holiday meal provision, expanded child benefits, and stronger local coordination between schools, social services and civil society.
For Sweden, the debate is also about protecting a long-standing democratic principle: that participation in education should not be limited by a family’s ability to pay for food. If school lunches are once again becoming a frontline welfare tool, the next question is whether the support surrounding them will keep pace with widening social and economic gaps.
