Photo: @FAO/Richard Ferreira

Asunción, Paraguay, June 15, 2023 – Education professionals from Paraguay will participate in the virtual course School Feeding: a strategy for a healthy life, within the framework of the Consolidation of School Feeding Programs in Latin America and the Caribbean project, of the Brazil-FAO International Cooperation Program.

The presentation of the course was held at the ministry’s headquarters this Thursday, June 15, with the presence of the Vice Minister of Basic Education, Alcira Sosa, and the Officer in Charge of FAO in Paraguay, Fabiola Alcorta, as well as directors and institution officials.

The objective of the course is to strengthen the capacities of the managers of the educational system of the different instances in relation to the management of the School Feeding Program of Paraguay (PAEP) and its application in different contexts within the framework of guaranteeing the right to healthy food and improving food and nutrition security.

At the time of highlighting the support of international cooperation to strengthen the School Feeding programs, the Vice Minister of Education, Alcira Sosa, argued that all spaces should be used, such as the course that will be developed, to carry out in-depth analysis.

“The program is working as a compensatory program, but we dream that one day it can be developed as a pedagogical program that helps us develop good habits,“ he said.

The Vice Minister indicated that it is necessary to think about some modifications in the law, to adjust it according to the real needs that exist, so that the programs meet the objectives that they have. In this sense, he said that the course will allow important actors of the MEC to discuss these aspects, to improve and be more efficient.

«This virtual course aims to articulate efforts at the national level,» he said. Fabiola Alcorta, Officer in Charge of the FAO Office in Paraguay, who highlighted the support of the Brazilian Cooperation Agency of the Ministry of External Relations (ABC/MRE) and the National Fund for Educational Development of the Ministry of Education (FNDE/MEC ) from Brazil, with whom the course is articulated together with the Sustainable School Feeding Network (RAES).

««Being able to promote this type of courses that are developed in several countries, makes this training provide teaching staff with management knowledge, and the become an actor of change, that they become fundamental axes for the promotion and habits of healthy practices in students and other actors in the educational community», added Alcorta.

He also pointed out that, for FAO in Paraguay, supporting this type of initiative and scaling it at the national level is very important, because “we believe that strengthening the planning and implementation of food and nutrition education projects and actions will strengthen the School Feeding program”.

Course details

In the virtual course School Food: strategy for a healthy life, which will begin next week, directors, departmental directors of education, supervisors of pedagogical technical support, general directorates of the administration centre of the MEC, directorates of educational institutions and inter-institutional technical team for School Feeding.

The training is replicated in more than 10 countries in the region in the year 2023, locating schools as ideal spaces for the promotion ofFood and Nutrition Education strategies, promoting exploration, critical and creative thinking, where staff training Teachers as agents of change become a fundamental axis for the promotion of healthy eating habits and practices for students and other actors in the educational community.

The Director of School Feeding of the MEC, Milena Fernández, explained that the training will last 9 weeks and a load of 62 hours/class, distributed in synchronous classes (4 hours per week), asynchronous tasks (2 hours per week), a hybrid seminar (4 hours) and a final project (8 hours).

The topics of the training modules are: Right to food, sovereignty and food and nutrition security; Food policies in Paraguay; and Food and nutrition education.

The project Consolidation of School Feeding Programs in Latin America and the Caribbean that promotes the course is an initiative carried out jointly by the Brazilian Cooperation Agency of the Ministry of External Relations (ABC/MRE), the National Fund for Educational Development of the Ministry of Education (FNDE/MEC) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). It integrates the actions of the Brazil-FAO International Cooperation Program.

In 2023, the Brazil-FAO Cooperation is supporting teacher training in 11 countries, taking as reference the methodological experience known as Sustainable Schools, which has food and nutrition education actions as one of the six components.

In addition, it is supporting the countries in the development of initiatives that can promote the necessary advances in school feeding programs such as internal missions, face-to-face events, exchanges of experiences, studies or surveys, publications, training, among others.