It is lunchtime at the village school in Santa Cruz in the Toledo district of southern Belize, and there is a babble of noise and chatter as kids settle themselves down at the long trestle tables. They eat enthusiastically from plates filled with stewed pork, boiled cassava, fresh tomato sauce and a carrot and radish salad. Meals include fruit and vegetables grown locally by the children’s farming families or in some cases from the school garden. Surveying the happy scene is Zita Bol, the school’s director, who watches the children eat with a sense of pride and satisfaction. 

A few years ago, school meals were rare at the Santa Cruz school. In fact, Toledo is one of the poorest districts of Belize. According to Zita, the school could only provide the children with meals one or two days a week, with the frequency depending on the number of families that could afford to pay a USD 0.50 fee towards meals and the availability of parents volunteering to cook.