Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com Introduction The pledge made by all signatories of the Rome Declaration on World Food Security at the World Food Summit in 1996 was to eradicate hunger in all countries, with an immediate view to reducing the number of undernourished people to half their present level no later than 2015. An international commitment to improving global nutrition and food security was born, and targets for reducing child and maternal malnutrition were set however not achieved. Quantifying regional nutrition status is important for identifying the burden caused by malnutrition and initiating successful interventions. The present article explores the problems associated with assessment of nutritional status in a community knowing however that “Peace is the most important precondition to eradicate hunger”. 1 There is a multitude of research areas in the complex social, political, economic, and behavioural aspects of nutrition and food security. Frequently, the main goals of nutrition research are to quantify and assess the state of malnutrition in a population. This begins with collecting data. Data collection methodologies may use approaches that are quantitative, qualitative, based on survey results or anthropometric indicators, or a mix of all. Indicators of nutrition status can be categorized into biological indicators and social determinants. Excellent but complex structure for evaluating malnutrition is provided by World Food Programme (WFP) 2 of the United Nations, enhancing the most common mistakes made when conducting studies. Malnutrition is one of the leading causes of under-fve deaths especially in resource-constraint settings. Effort at addressing the high prevalence of malnutrition in most developing countries is hampered by paucity of data on its prevalence and thus most of these countries are not in harmony with the levels of malnutrition and the required urgent attention. Global malnutrition is of concern to public health practitioners. There are certain factors which should alert the primary health care team to the fact that nutritional intake may be reduced and that risk of malnutrition is increased. These include disease condition, functional disabilities, inadequate or inappropriate food intake, poor dentition or diffculty swallowing, pharmaceuticals, alcoholism, depression, poor social and fnancial circumstances or recent discharge from hospital. The indicators used to assess the state of malnutrition and its underlying causes can be categorized into biological indicators (anthropometric, biochemical and clinical) and social determinants. Nutrition experts have been using these parameters for decades but never consider that manifestations of nutrition defciencies may only appear in severe cases. Depending on the type of defciency and the health consequences related to its condition, even clinical indicators may not provide the most well-defned representation of defciency. For instance, it is important to consider the possibility of confounding factors when conducting nutrition evaluations. Nutrition research can be aimed at identifying the various social, cultural, political, and economic factors of nutrition in order to fully understand the underlying causes of malnutrition. The social determinants of malnutrition can be explored through both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Qualitative methods help develop a better and deeper understanding of social factors of nutrition, but are long- delayed and inapplicable for large-scale surveillances. Nevertheless, a comprehensive understanding of community’s nutritional status may be provided by evaluating issues such as local food insecurity, food diversity, and infant-feeding practices. Investigating dietary intake and diversity could be useful, however simply inquiring about “what people eat regularly” is subject to health care reporting errors due to poor retrospection over long periods of time. Malnutrition This term includes both over-nutrition (obesity and overweight) and under-nutrition. Malnutrition increases the risk and worsens the severity of infections. 3 Infants and young children are most affected by malnutrition as they have increased nutritional needs to support growth. 4 Undernourished children, as well as children with severe malnutrition, have a higher risk of dying than children with an J Nutr Health Food Eng. 2018;8(5):340‒344. 340 © 2018 Chabite et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially. Malnutrition and school feeding programmes Volume 8 Issue 5 - 2018 Chabite IT, 1 Garrine C, 2 Ferrão LJ, 3 Fernandes TH 3 1 CEIL, Centro de estudos Interdisciplinares Lúrio, Lúrio University, Mozambique 2 Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária, Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique 3 Ministry of Education and Human Development, Av 24 Julho, Maputo, Mozambique Correspondence: Tito Fernandes, Ministry of Education and Human Development, Av. 24 Julho, Maputo, Mozambique, Tel +00258829565760, Email tito.fernandes@mined.gov.mz Received: May 04, 2018 | Published: September 20, 2018 Abstract Assessing national nutrition status is important due to the concern caused by malnutrition. The present article explores the questions and limitations associated with assessment of nutritional status in a community and the role of national school feeding programme to improve health. Nutritionists have been using for decades biological indicators (anthropometric, biochemical and clinical) and social determinants as essential parameters, in comparison with predetermined standards, but rarely consider that manifestations of nutrition deficiencies may only occur in severe cases and in the future. There is as yet no single effective approach to malnutrition management and it is unlikely that a single delivery system would suit all situations worldwide. Data on the most effective time and type of intervention are still lacking. Throughout decades United Nations initiated many Plans towards fighting hunger and recently for the Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger by 2030. We set low expectations for the outcome of these international plans since most of the financial investments never fully reach the people in need. The malnutrition situation is worsened by the well-known conflict, socio-economic and climatic shocks, which affect production and access to key resources. Malnutrition and hunger must be tackled from infancy, preferably in programmes gathering the whole community of farmers around each school. We briefly review this complex approach and some positive outcomes. Keywords: malnutrition, school feeding programmes, governance, hunger Journal of Nutritional Health & Food Engineering Case Report Open Access