FAO at SPIEF-2023: School meals and drivers of economic development

On 15 June, within the framework of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), director of the FAO Liaison Office with the Russian Federation Oleg Kobiakov addressed the section “Social Support Projects for the Population as Drivers of Economic Development”.

“The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition (2016–2025) provide an unprecedented opportunity to accelerate the pace of investment in programmes and policy measures on enhancing food security and improving nutrition,” said the head of the FAO Moscow Office. 

“Promoting a better diet and proper nutrition through schools allows achieving results in ensuring good health and well-being that extend far beyond classrooms to households and local communities. Linking school meals programmes with local food production strengthens and diversifies local food systems and increases the income of local producers, especially farmers.  

FAO is working with member countries to harness the power of schools through school meals programmes and school catering, contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on food security, nutrition, education and health for all.

A key aspect of FAO’s strategy is to link local farmers and school food and nutrition programmes to help develop the local economy and encourage community participation. To ensure that locally produced school meals meet the necessary quality standards and are provided to schoolchildren in sufficient quantities, expert advice is given to those involved in the procurement and preparation of food.

Nutrition education is included in pupils’ curriculum in order to promote voluntary adoption of healthy diets and behaviour among schoolchildren. For example, through school gardens and orchards, children learn how to grow food for a healthy diet, acquiring steady sustainable production skills.

Finally, the FAO strategy is aimed at establishing enabling regulatory and institutional environment to ensure effective development and implementation of school feeding and nutrition programmes. 

Besides methodological assistance, FAO also provides technical assistance to promote school feeding in a number of countries through voluntary donor contributions.

Thus, within the framework of the FAO project “Developing capacity for strengthening food security and nutrition in selected countries of Caucasus and Central Asia” financed by Russia (USD 6 million, 2016-2022), three programmes were implemented in Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. 

In Armenia, school gardens and orchards were created in the schools of the Ararat region. In particular, it provided an opportunity to build the capacity of school staff to produce and use fresh vegetables for school meals in order to improve school food rations and increase their nutritional value. Through the sale of surpluses in local markets, off-budget funds for school meals were formed, which contributed to the improvement of infrastructure. In addition, school gardens and orchards have been used to spread knowledge about sustainable agricultural practices and nutrition.

In Kyrgyzstan, the project developed a sustainable centralized model for the supply of agricultural products to schools and other social institutions in the Kemin district. Many schools have benefited from the Logistics Centre services, and closer ties with local food producers have boosted the local economy.

In Tajikistan, seedbeds with drip irrigation equipment have been set up in a number of schools in the Vakhsh and Dusti districts. The purpose of these school gardens is to increase food supplies and meet the nutritional needs of schoolchildren and local communities. School staff and employees were trained in sustainable production methods. 

These pilot projects were carried out in cooperation with the Institute of Industrial Nutrition, an Autonomous Non-Commercial Organization. In addition, as Oleg Kobiakov concluded, the project was carried out in coordination with the World Food Programme, which continues to work on school meals in these countries with Russian funding.”    

Vladimir Chernigov, President of the Institute of Industrial Nutrition, an Autonomous Non-Commercial Organization, supported Kyrgyzstan's initiative to hold a school nutrition forum “I think it’s a brilliant idea. I very much hope that it will receive support and will be implemented with the participation of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, the World Food Programme and FAO.”  

“A sustainable school nutrition system is about a transparent, open economy and appropriate laws and regulations. This applies to the infrastructure, the products themselves, and the personnel who must ensure these processes. In doing so, the legal and regulatory framework must be sufficient,” Vladimir Chernigov highlighted. 

“We have set up national contact points, which deal not only with nutrition education but also with health and hygiene standards,” Kojiro Nakai, Director of the UN World Food Programme Office in Kyrgyzstan, said. He added that the WFP provides guidance on how to develop approaches to this topic and distributes textbooks on school nutrition.  

“You know, school meals should not be boring. Breakfasts and lunches at school should be not just nutritious, but also taste good. We hold a school food competition on a regular basis with chefs from different provinces. In the end, we determine who is the best chef. It should be noted that we work not only with school principals and teachers, but also train all those involved, this amounts to about 10 000 people.  

Moreover,” Kojiro Nakai noted, “starting from this year, our activities in Kyrgyzstan are also aimed at parents of schoolchildren. We go to the family and community level and see this as a practical way of raising awareness of nutrition issues.” 

During the discussion, Russian problems were also considered. For example, a hot topic of concern, especially to parents of schoolchildren, was the quality control of breakfast and lunch, as well as the funding of the programme. Answering the question, Vladimir Chernigov, President of the Institute of Industrial Nutrition, an Autonomous Non-Commercial Organization, said “The amount of funds allocated from the federal budget is more than 53 billion roubles. If we take the exchange rate of one US dollar to 70 roubles, this equates to USD 800 million a year spent on food alone.  

This amount represents subsidies to the regions from the federal budget to provide schoolchildren with free hot meals. According to our calculations, it is worth about 63-70 roubles a day. I emphasise that this is not an amount to feed a child, but to help the regional authorities to add their own funds and draw up the necessary ration, taking into account the recommendations.” 

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The forum was also attended by: Denis Gribov, Deputy Minister of Education of the Russian Federation; Satenik Mkrtchyan, Director of the School Feeding and Children's Welfare Agency of Armenia; Adham Musallam, Country Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) in the Republic of Tajikistan; Nanna Skau, Country Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) in the Republic of Armenia.

Photo: ©FAO/Vladimir Mikheev