Sri Lanka allocates Rs 33.6bn for school meals reaching 1.5m students
Sri Lanka allocated Rs 33.6 billion to its 2026 school nutrition programme, which covers more than 1.5 million students in 8,990 schools.
Event / data period: 2026
Published: · Updated:
According to Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya, the government allocated Rs 33.6 billion to the 2026 school nutrition programme. The first National School Nutrition Conference took place in Colombo on 2 October and was reported the next day; the official government portal said the programme reached more than 1.5 million students in 8,990 schools.
The conference, attended by Save the Children among others, discussed expanding the programme, its sustainability and quality, and research findings. The prime minister described school meals as a public programme that could strengthen the connection between child health and nutrition and agriculture, fisheries, cooperatives and the local economy, beyond reducing hunger.
Data
School nutrition programme budget and coverage
2026 programme allocation and coverage reported by the government portal.
- 2026 programme budget allocation
- 33.6 billion LKR
- 2026 · Observed
- Schools covered by the programme
- 8,990 count
- 2026 · Observed
- Approximate lower bound of student coverage
- ≈1.5 million people
- 2026 · Observed
Methodology
The budget is an annual allocation, not reported actual expenditure. Student coverage is stated as “more than 1.5 million”; the value is an approximate lower bound, not an exact count.
Updated:
Subjects and places
Geographic references
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- Sri Lanka · Place role: Coverage · Place type: Country or area · Location precision: RegionalEvidence
- Explicit preserved editorial country/region; no city or national centroid inferrednews.lk ↗
- Colombo · Colombo, Sri Lanka · Place role: Place mentioned by source · Place type: City · Location precision: Approximate
79.8428278, 6.934675 (longitude, latitude)
EvidenceOpen this point in OpenStreetMap ↗- Explicit article mention: Colombo. Country agrees with the preserved article scope. Gazetteer reference only; event location is unconfirmed.news.lk ↗ungegn.un.org ↗ungegn-api.azurewebsites.net ↗www.cbsl.gov.lk ↗