School Feeding for Sustainable Development

Towards a Solution

In partnership with country governments, the Project has developed a methodology known as Sustainable Schools, which aims to generate learning laboratories for school feeding policy in specific municipalities. To date, at least six components have been developed: intersectoral articulation, community participation, adoption of adequate and healthy menus, actions on food and nutrition education, improvement of infrastructure, and purchases for family farming.

The implementation of this sustainable school feeding model aims to promote a school meals program at the national level, with coverage to all students, which guarantees the systematic and continuous supply of fresh and healthy food purchased from local family agriculture, and associated with effective actions of food and nutrition education to promote healthy eating habits.

These school feeding actions contribute to SDGs 1, 2, 4 and 8, once they:

• guarantee access to quality food regularly;
• improve health conditions in the medium and long term;
• are strategies to address dropout and non-learning indicators;
• help tackle malnutrition in all its breadth, including chronic noncommunicable diseases, obesity, and overweight.

At the same time, they positively impact students' school performance, and improve the economic and social development through family farming purchasing, which generates jobs in rural communities, creates opportunities for women and strengthens local associations and cooperatives. Undoubtedly, all these elements are very important for the reduction of poverty and eradication of hunger.

There are many quantifiable results achieved throughout the project, including:

•  5,200 technicians trained in the participating countries;
• 13,000 students have participated in the study of nutritional data in the region;
• 2,000 participants completed the semi-presential course on the Development of School Feeding Programs based on the Brazilian experience;
• 4 countries enacted specific school feeding laws;
• 3200 schools have been established as a reference for sustainable school feeding;
• More than 5,000 families of farmers have been impacted.