Abstract

Context and background: Poor nutrition among children and adolescents is a major contributor to global health and sustainability challenges, driving obesity, type 2 diabetes, and food waste in schools.

Motivation: Educational institutions are uniquely positioned to shape healthy and sustainable dietary behaviors, yet the effectiveness of school-based interventions has not been systematically evaluated with respect to both health outcomes and sustainability indicators.

Hypothesis: We hypothesized that multi-component, whole-school interventions are more effective than single-focus programs in improving nutrition, reducing food waste, and supporting progress toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Methods: Following PRISMA 2020 guidelines, we systematically reviewed 12 peer-reviewed studies published between 2010 and 2023, assessing their quality with JBI tools and extracting data on intervention types, outcomes, and sustainability metrics.

Results: The review found that whole-school, multi-component interventions achieved an average 15–25% improvement in fruit and vegetable intake, a 10–18% reduction in food waste, and measurable decreases in greenhouse gas emissions linked to dietary choices, while single-focus interventions showed limited effects.

Conclusions: School-based interventions, particularly those adopting a systemic whole-school approach, can simultaneously advance SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being), SDG 4 (Quality Education), and SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), and a standardized set of sustainability indicators is urgently needed to guide future research and policy.