Foto: @FAO, Jorge Ulises

Bridgetown, 23 December, 2015 - School Feeding Programmes in the Caribbean took centre stage 2-4 December when officials from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) met at a workshop with stakeholders and government officials from the Caribbean and Brazil to present and analyse the St. Lucian Sustainable School Feeding Pilot experience.

The December workshop, held in St. Lucia, was aimed at strengthening governments’ capacities for improving school feeding programmes throughout the Caribbean region, through the lens of the St. Lucian Pilot Programme, which commenced in 2015.

According to Mr Jorge O’Ryan, FAO Consultant on Governance and Food Security, “the School Feeding Programme in the Caribbean region has served as one of the most successful policies in terms of its ability to simultaneously address the various challenges that the region is currently facing”. He highlighted the Programme’s ability to ensure a sustainable market for locally produced fresh foods and to improve health by promoting healthy eating habits among children through food and nutrition education.

Despite the success of the initiative, there remain some challenges to the long-term sustainability of the initiative, which include: inadequate levels of engagement of all stakeholders involved in the delivery of the Programme, financial budgetary allocation from governments and the absence of clear legal and regulatory frameworks governing the implementation, monitoring and social control of the initiative.

At a Reflection Meeting organised by the FAO Sub-regional Office in the Caribbean, held 14-16 December in Barbados, Mr O’Ryan reported that stakeholders who attended the St. Lucia workshop, identified the need for the School Feeding Programmes in the region to provide adequate, healthy and culturally appropriate foods to all entitled students as well as to promote education for food and nutrition security. The development of healthy eating habits and the installation of adequate infrastructure and equipment for food preparation in schools, were other areas that necessitated a greater importance. Local and regional stakeholders also called on governments to establish appropriate linkages with local markets and producers and to engage in diagnosis, monitoring and evaluation of the initiative.

Mr O’Ryan emphasised that the School Feeding Programme should go beyond a meal supply programme and become a tool for social transformation, in which the process of educating children about food and nutrition becomes a tool for empowerment and dignity.

FAO and the Brazilian Government, through the “Strengthening School Feeding Programmes in the Framework of the Hunger Free LAC 2025 Initiative” Project, have committed to develop a comprehensive cooperation plan aimed at ensuring the sustainability of the initiative, as well as the adoption of a human rights approach to the Programme and its associated public policies in the region.

During the visit to St. Lucia, officials toured the two schools that benefitted from the FAO/Brazil cooperation project as well as another school that was supported by the private sector. Officials were able to critically analyze the implementation process of the initiative and lessons learned.

It is hoped that the lessons learned in the St. Lucia Sustainable Pilot Project, which focused on the inclusion of nutritional education in schools, evaluation and monitoring of the Programme, public purchase from local farmers, the installation of school gardens and inter sectorial collaboration and community participation, will also become a useful reference for other School Feeding Programmes throughout the region.

Following the success of the Saint Lucia experience, five more countries are planning to implement national pilots for a Sustainable School Feeding Programme. Belize, Jamaica, Guyana, Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines will follow the experience of Saint Lucia in 2016 to strengthen School feeding programmes in the Caribbean.