A School Feeding Program is being carried out in Portoviejo in line with the recent agreement between the Prefecture of Manabí, FAO and the Ministry of Education of Ecuador.

On November 29, the second day of delivery of local fresh fruit from the peasant family agriculture of the Chone and Santa Ana cantons began. Food was acquired by the Provincial Government of Manabí, through the public purchase portal of EP Manabí Produce, and benefited 42 688 children and adolescents from 95 educational units in the urban area of the Portoviejo canton.

This initiative, supported by FAO through the Flexible Multi-Partner Mechanism (FMM), has the objective of strengthening food systems in small cities, where the usage of local agricultural products to provide school feeding programs is promoting the reactivation of the local economy and the adoption of healthy diets by the city's students.

So far, more than 82,000 servings of fruit have been purchased in two deliveries, in October and November 2022. Each serving has been delivered to educational units duly packaged and labeled. The labeling process responds to a traceability strategy of the purchased product, which will allow the local government to receive feedback on the management of collection and distribution of the product and thus strengthen the capacities of the farmer organizations linked to this important initiative.

Based on the percentage of food waste (1.73%) generated in the first delivery last October, the public company Manabí Produce, in charge of the execution of this second stage, has taken measures to optimize the logistics of delivery and distribution, managing to reduce the original waste by approximately fifty percent, compared to the waste percentage of the first delivery.

The close coordination between the Ministry of Education and the Provincial Government of Manabí has made it possible to increase the influx of parents to receive school snacks.