Summary of topics and results
The Expert Panel entitled “School meal nutrition standards as a tool to support the right to food in schools”, hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP), featured different stakeholders discussing how to step up actions to satisfy commitments and meet targets in relation to schoolchildren’s right to food.
The event was moderated by Nancy Aburto, Deputy Director of the FAO’s Food and Nutrition Division. During the first session, Fatima Hachem, Senior Nutrition Officer at the FAO, presented the FAO–WFP project that aims to develop guidance for governments to set context-specific and data-driven school meal nutrition standards using a food systems and right-to-food lens, and to enhance the global recognition of nutrition standards for school meals as instruments for protecting children and adolescents’ right to food.
Hachem explained that, given the investments that governments are making, it is necessary to ensure that school meal programmes effectively contribute towards the diet and nutrition priorities of children and adolescents, with a particular focus on the most vulnerable. A way of doing so is to define and implement context-specific and evidence-informed nutrition standards which go beyond the nutrient composition of meals, to also integrate recommendations on meal experience, socialisation, equity, social justice, environmental sustainability and food learning.
The subsequent panel discussion involved Neema Lugangira, Member of Parliament of Tanzania, and Fernanda Pacobahyba, President of the National Fund for Education Development of Brazil, who, although not physically present in Berlin, had provided her input to the discussion in advance. Lugangira highlighted the significance of prioritising the incorporation of mandatory school meal nutrition standards into legislation, and outlined specific actions that parliamentarians can take to support children’s right to adequate food in schools. Pacobahyba provided remarks on the integration of nutrition standards into the legal framework of Brazil’s National School Feeding Programme; as one of the co-chairs of the School Meals Coalition, she also elaborated on the benefits she envisions for member countries that adopt holistic mandatory nutrition standards for their meal programmes.
The session was completed by Bite Back activist Jacob Rosenberg who, drawing on his own experience, presented the role of youth advocates to support the nutrition quality of school meals and overall of a healthier food environment. In particular, he underlined that school lunch time provides a unique time for students to connect and relax, and that they should be able to do this without presence of unhealthy food.
Sigrid Müller, the Deputy Director of WFP’s Global Office Berlin, provided the closing remarks, highlighting the three key takeaways, namely the need to:
• establish and implement nutrition standards that are based on context-specific and multisectoral evidence;
• involve students and school governing bodies when making decisions about standards; and
• enshrine the standards into legislation to guarantee schoolchildren and adolescents’ right to food.