# 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. - Canonical URL: https://newsverum.com/en/news/sri-lanka-school-meal-programme-budget-and-coverage-2026 - Publisher: Newsverum - Section: Health - Country: Sri Lanka - Published: 2026-10-04T14:04:24+00:00 - Updated: 2026-10-07T05:58:47+03:00 - Event / data period: 2026 - Other editions: [Türkçe](https://newsverum.com/tr/news/sri-lanka-school-meal-programme-budget-and-coverage-2026.md), [العربية](https://newsverum.com/ar/news/sri-lanka-school-meal-programme-budget-and-coverage-2026.md), [Français](https://newsverum.com/fr/news/sri-lanka-school-meal-programme-budget-and-coverage-2026.md), [Español](https://newsverum.com/es/news/sri-lanka-school-meal-programme-budget-and-coverage-2026.md), [Deutsch](https://newsverum.com/de/news/sri-lanka-school-meal-programme-budget-and-coverage-2026.md), [Português](https://newsverum.com/pt/news/sri-lanka-school-meal-programme-budget-and-coverage-2026.md) 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. 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. | label | value | unit | period | basis | value_qualifier | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | 2026 programme budget allocation | 33.6 | billion LKR | 2026 | observed | | | Schools covered by the programme | 8990 | count | 2026 | observed | | | Approximate lower bound of student coverage | 1.5 | million people | 2026 | observed | approximate | Sources: · Download data: [JSON](https://newsverum.com/api/v1/articles/sri-lanka-school-meal-programme-budget-and-coverage-2026/data/sri-lanka-school-nutrition-2026-coverage-and-budget?lang=en&format=json) · [CSV](https://newsverum.com/api/v1/articles/sri-lanka-school-meal-programme-budget-and-coverage-2026/data/sri-lanka-school-nutrition-2026-coverage-and-budget?lang=en&format=csv) ## Sources - [The Official Government News Portal of Sri Lanka]() (Source checked: 2026-10-04; Published: 2026-10-03) ## Correction history - 2026-10-07T00:57:04+03:00: German and Portuguese editions and translations of the data and correction explanations have been added to this article. - 2026-10-07T00:57:27+03:00: The article’s language editions and data explanations were reviewed, and identified translation and label issues were corrected. Sources, numerical data and the first-publication date were preserved. - 2026-10-07T05:58:47+03:00: Data classification corrected: measure identifiers and types now follow the dataset rules. No figure, unit or date changed. --- Cite the canonical URL above. [Editorial standards and corrections](https://newsverum.com/en/editorial)