"Our actions are our future." Today, a Healthy Eating Festival, which was aimed at highlighting positive outcomes of behavioral changes and eating habits of the beneficiaries of the FAO project was held in the Suzak district of the Jalal-Abad region. 

Bishkek, October 12. Today a Healthy Eating Festival, during which participants share their results in the field of production and processing of agricultural products and improvement of their nutritional and food behavior and habits that they have achieved during the project, was held in the village of Octyabr of the Suzak district of the Jalal-Abad region.

The joint pilot project of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Ministry of Labor and Social Development of the Kyrgyz Republic “Productive Social Contract / Cash Plus”, implemented in the Suzak district of the Jalal-Abad region, embodies a comprehensive approach to solving the problem of poverty and malnutrition among MBLIF (monthly benefit for low-income families with children) recipients. Apart from the fact that the pilot initiative is aimed at cultivating cash and nutritious crops, the project envisages for training of beneficiaries on nutrition issues in order to improve their eating behavior and nutrition habits.   

From August to October 2018, the beneficiaries of the project “Productive Social Contract / Cash Plus” were receiving nutrition education and learned how to apply new knowledge in the usual recipes of dishes. A variety of healthy foods and changing of food and nutrition habits and behaviors is another step proposed by FAO in order to achieve Zero Hunger by 2030.

Above all, this festival intends to remind everyone that only by joint efforts they will be able to eradicate all types of hunger by 2030. 

Achieving Zero Hunger is one of the main challenges for the UN system. This goal implies establishing of a world without hunger by 2030, because shortage of food, malnutrition or excessive consumption of some products to the detriment of other foods leads to deterioration in the health status of the population, and also destroys the ecosystem under the climate change condition and harms the environment. It also creates a financial burden for both the national economy and the global economy, and entails global social instability.

Today, at Healthy Eating Festival, FAO project beneficiaries, partners represented by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Industry and Melioration, the Ministry of Labor and Social Development, the State Agency for Local Self-Government and Inter-Ethnic Relations, as well as representatives of the Russian Federation - the donor of this project, call upon everyone to work for achieving Zero Hunger.

“Our actions are our future” states the slogan of World Food Day 2018, and that is why it is worth starting today to work on nutrition habits, making healthy and varied diet a priority in the life of every person.

The pilot project "Productive Social Contract / Cash Plus" is implemented with the financial support of the Russian Federation.