School meal nutrition standards as a tool to support the right to food in schools

Given the significant investment that governments around the world have made in their school meal programmes, it is as urgent as ever to ensure their impact on children’s and adolescent’s diet and nutrition outcomes is optimized. One critical way to do this is by implementing data-driven and evidence-informed nutrition standards that not only consider the diet and nutrition priorities of students, focusing on the most vulnerable, but also aspects of food learning, socialization, equity and social justice, as well as limitations and sustainability of the school food system.

Within this context, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP), supported financially by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, are currently implementing a global 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.
• Enhance the global recognition of nutrition standards for school meals as instruments for protecting children’s and adolescents’ right to food.

In anticipation of the 20th anniversary of the United Nations’ Right to Food guidelines in 2024, the 16th Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) presents a key opportunity to advocate for the need to set robust nutrition standards for school meals among high level food and agriculture stakeholders. The FAO-WFP Expert Panel will therefore bring together stakeholders with different expertise and backgrounds to discuss how they can step up their actions in order to meet their commitments and targets in relation to school children’s right to food.

 

Registration and livestream

To view the livestream, please register on the dedicated platform. On the day of the event, return to the platform and proceed as follows: Homepage > Agenda > Select day > Select expert panel > Livestream & survey.

 

Agenda

Opening (5 min)

• Nancy Aburto, Deputy Director of the Food and Nutrition Division, FAO (moderator)

Session 1: A holistic approach for setting nutrition standards for school meals (15 min)

• Fatima Hachem, Team Leader, Nutrition Education and Consumer Awareness Group, FAO

Session 2: Panel discussion: Supporting the right to food in schools through nutrition standards (30 min)

• Fernanda Pacobahyba, President of the National Fund for Education Development, Brazil

• Neema Kichiki Lugangira, Member of Parliament, Tanzania

 Session 3: The role of youth advocates to support the nutrition quality of school meals (10 min)

• Jacob Rosenberg, Activist, Bite Back

Session 4: Open discussion and opportunities for advocacy (25 min)

• All participants

  Closing (5 min)

• Sigrid Müller, Deputy Director WFP Global Office Berlin, WFP

Register Add to calendar