Family farming reaches Guatemalan classrooms: the story of San Marcos and its school feeding program

06/04/2026

Every week, early in the morning, Beverli Rodríguez, a farmer with the Tejelucos Farmers Network, gathers with her family to prepare the produce that will be delivered to schools in her community of Tejutla, in the department of San Marcos, Guatemala. Her routine mirrors that of the many farming families now sustaining school feeding in the area.

Beverli's experience reflects a broader collective process: the strengthening of family farming as an organized actor within a coordinated, inter-institutional system capable of supplying quality food, energizing the local economy, and making a sustained contribution to school nutrition across southwestern Guatemala.

This collective process did not emerge spontaneously. In 2015, the Government of Guatemala launched the "Sustainable Schools" pilot program, funded by the Government of Brazil through the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC) and supported by FAO-Brazil technical cooperation, to serve as a reference model for implementing sustainable school feeding programs.

The pilot was further strengthened by the project "Comprehensive Rural Development in Five Municipalities of the Upper Cuilco River Basin in the Department of San Marcos," which focused on training smallholder farmers in production processes, business organization, and good agricultural practices, so they could become suppliers for the School Feeding Program (PAE, by its Spanish acronym).

Both initiatives were led by Guatemala's Ministries of Agriculture, Livestock and Food (MAGA) and Education (MINEDUC), with technical support from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and funding from Brazil and Sweden, respectively.

The results were clear. Technical training enabled farmers to supply 50% of the food consumed by 610 children in three of the five San Marcos municipalities included in the pilot.

This evidence was pivotal in 2017, when MAGA brought a concrete proposal before the National Congress: demonstrating that it was possible to link family farming to the School Feeding Law.

Following congressional approval, MINEDUC brought local farmers on board as PAE suppliers. To that end, family farming supplier networks were established, market analyses were conducted, and viable business models for smallholder producers were defined.

Institutional coordination

The next step was to fully integrate family farming into the PAE in San Marcos by organizing producers into associative networks to generate public sales. Inter-institutional coordination proved decisive.

FAO, with financial support from the Kingdom of Sweden, played a key role in aligning the efforts of the Joint Programme "Strengthening Local and National Institutions to Improve Comprehensive Rural Development in the Marquense Highlands, San Marcos, Guatemala" with MAGA's priorities.

FAO also supported coordination among MAGA, municipal governments, and schools to establish mechanisms for consolidating orders, ensuring quality control, and planning distribution routes.

One of the model's cornerstones has been the creation and strengthening of governance bodies. The Municipal Inter-Institutional Technical Commissions on School Feeding (CTIMAEs) and the Departmental Inter-Institutional Technical Commission on School Feeding (CTIDAE) were established — bodies that resolved administrative obstacles and built the local governance needed for schools to trust family producers and for the School Feeding Law to be effectively implemented.

These commissions also took on the task of regionalizing school menus to ensure they were culturally and traditionally appropriate and aligned with students' established eating habits.

To date, with the strengthening of these commissions and this model, all 30 municipalities in the department of San Marcos and 100% of their schools are integrated into the program. Six hundred farmers are registered as state suppliers, and another 800 are part of the support network that helps meet school requirements.

"It's easy to say now, but it takes constant effort," admitted Edson Castañeda, a MAGA extension worker in the municipality of Concepción Tutuapa. "There are people who want to join the process but want to do so without meeting the requirements. The key is walking alongside them through their learning journey," he added.

Norma Pérez, FAO Guatemala's national project coordinator, acknowledged that since 2015, dialogue among all stakeholders has been essential for overcoming the challenges the PAE faces. "Governance is fundamental in these processes. All the commissions know they have a space to foster dialogue and find solutions."

Aumner Pérez, MAGA's representative for the School Feeding Program in San Marcos, added that the PAE's success in the department stems from each commission taking ownership of its processes and resolving issues locally before escalating them. "Year after year, with FAO's support, we hold gatherings with all the commissions to share feedback," he said. These meetings also foster stronger integration among municipal commissions and the exchange of experiences across communities.

This system is reflected in the budget. In 2024, for example, MINEDUC allocated 200 million Guatemalan quetzals (approximately USD 26.1 million) for the department, 70% of which was invested in family farming production.

The strength of family farming's link to the PAE in San Marcos lies in its organizational structure. Farmers are organized into supplier networks; parents into Parent Organization Forms (OPFs); at the municipal level, School Feeding Commissions (CTIMAEs); and at the departmental level, the Inter-Institutional Technical Commission on School Feeding (CTIDAE).

"In the end, I would say the experience has been a success — the culture of association was the driving force and a valuable opportunity for the economic development of our territories, where the key to inclusion is coming together. Now the goal must be to keep strengthening the commissions and deepening governance," concluded Norma Pérez.

Today, linking producer associations to the PAE is seen as a local, reliable market opportunity.