FAO and the Government of Brazil highlight the Amazonian school feeding experience

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Brazilian government, represented by the Brazilian Cooperation Agency of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (ABC/MRE) and the National Fund for Educational Development (FNDE), highlighted to representatives of the countries belonging to the Sustainable School Feeding Network (RAES) the school feeding experience in the state of Amazonas, which is linked to purchases from family farming.

In this region of Brazil, school feeding programmes benefit more than 633,000 students across 62 municipalities. The municipal network of Manaus alone serves nearly 250,000 students, making it one of the largest in the country, where purchases converge from both family farmers and Indigenous producers.

The event showcased as a good practice the experience of public procurement from more than 100 traditional communities across 20 municipalities in Amazonas. This initiative was created and coordinated by the Federal Public Ministry (MPF), together with the Commission on Traditional Foods of Peoples in Amazonas (Catrapoa). This action helps to improve nutritional quality, respect local culture and food habits, and increase producers’ income, while fostering the economy sustainably in vulnerable regions.

Máximo Torero, FAO Chief Economist and Acting Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean, emphasized that school feeding policies, which link direct purchases from producers, represent a key opportunity to ensure the right to adequate food, promote healthy food environments, and drive local territorial development, strengthening livelihoods through public procurement.

Government representatives from Belize, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Paraguay, the Dominican Republic, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Suriname, and Uruguay — RAES member countries — visited schools, daycare centers, cooperatives, and farmers, and engaged in dialogue with Indigenous communities and representatives of school feeding programmes from the municipalities of Manaus, Presidente Figueiredo, and Tonantins, in Amazonas.

Since 2009, the government of Brazil, through ABC and FNDE, and FAO have been working together to scale up the implementation of good practices and experiences in school feeding programmes across Latin America and the Caribbean through the Brazil–FAO International Cooperation Programme, drawing on the accumulated experience of Brazil’s National School Feeding Programme (PNAE), which has 70 years and serves nearly 40 million students per day, in partnership with 27 states and 5,570 municipalities.

RAES was created by the government of Brazil in 2018, with technical support from FAO, to strengthen and consolidate school feeding programmes in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The event was organized by the Brazilian Cooperation Agency of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (ABC/MRE), together with the National Fund for Educational Development (FNDE) and FAO. It was also supported by the Municipal Department of Education of Manaus City Hall (SEMED), the State Department of Education and School Sports of the Government of Amazonas (SEDUC), and the School Feeding and Nutrition Collaboration Center of the Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM).