Brasília, April 20, 2022 – In the year that it turns 10, the Sustainable Schools methodology has already been implemented in 15 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean and is a reality in more than 23,000 schools. To present this and other data of a decade of Sustainable Schools in the LAC region, the webinar “Sustainable Schools - A decade of transformation of school feeding programs, focusing on human rights to adequate food " will be held. The event will also launch the study 'The situational status of Sustainable Schools'.

The webinar will be broadcast by UNFAO on YouTube and by the Twitter account @FaoBrasilCoop, on May 4, 2022, at 2:30 pm (Barbados time zone) with simultaneous translation into English and Spanish.

The virtual event also inaugurates the 3rd version of the course School Feeding as an Educational Strategy for a Healthy Life, promoted by the project Consolidation of School Feeding Programs in Latin America and the Caribbean, of the Brazil-FAO International Cooperation Program.

In the 2022 version, the course is offered for professionals from four countries: Colombia, Guatemala, Peru and the Dominican Republic. In the last two editions, approximately 5,000 professionals in the region's school feeding area were trained.

The project Consolidation of School Feeding Programs in Latin America and the Caribbean is a trilateral south-south cooperation initiative carried out jointly by the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC/MRE), the National Fund for Educational Development (FNDE/ MEC) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The Healthy Life Course integrates the commitments of the Sustainable School Feeding Network (RAES, for its acronym in Spanish), implemented by the Government of Brazil with the support of FAO, to promote the development of capacities and the exchange of experiences among countries for the strengthening of school feeding programs in the region.

Sustainable Schools in the region

During the webinar, the main data of the study "The situational status of Sustainable Schools in Latin America and the Caribbean 2021", produced within the scope of the project, will be presented. The Sustainable Schools methodology was designed in 2012, built by experts from various countries in the region to promote sustainable school feeding programs, through learning and good practices that are developed from six components: intersectoral articulation; social participation; healthy and adequate menus; food and nutrition education actions; infrastructure improvement; public procurement from family farming.

During the 13 weeks of the Healthy Life 2022 course, the participants will learn more about each of the components of Sustainable Schools, especially regarding food and nutrition education.

The Sustainable Schools methodology, developed since 2012, allows the collective construction of a good school feeding practice and aims to scale this policy to the national level. It also focus on reaching all schools, all students and on being executed the entire school year, offering a nutritious diet, rich in fresh and healthy products acquired from family farming. The methodology is an effort to reach the highest quality and the sustainability of school feeding programs.

Date: May 4th

Time: 2:30 pm (Barbados time zone)

Broadcast available in English: fao.org/americas/eventos/ver/en/c/1506033/

Broadcast available in Spanish: fao.org/americas/eventos/ver/es/c/1506042/