With the goal of addressing food insecurity and promoting healthy eating among students, the Prolepsis Institute, with founding support from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, began designing the School Food and Nutrition Program – DIATROFI. The Program was developed to (a) provide all students in participating schools with a free, healthy daily meal, and (b) encourage lifelong healthy eating habits.

To minimize the risk of stigmatizing students or families in need, the Program was designed to offer meals to all children in selected schools, based on principles of anonymity, transparency, and non-discrimination. Additionally, various implementation methods were considered, including direct meal distribution to students and food vouchers to parents/guardians. Following statistical analysis of the outcomes, the current model of the Program was adopted and remains in place today.

The Program was initially implemented as a pilot during the April–June 2012 period in 34 schools and continued the following school year in 163 schools.