By Bianca and Giselle, Youth Public Policy Movement (MJPOP) 

We are Bianca, aged 15, and Giselle, aged 14, from Brazil. We wanted to write this blog about Nutrition Dialogues on school meals and their impact on our lives. A school meal is one of the most important aspects of school life as it provides important nutrients to ensure students’ good performance and healthy growth. Over the years, we have seen how school meals have positively impacted students’ lives. But we have also heard stories about students who have  experienced hunger for a long time, teachers who have also experienced this problem and classmates who live in more precarious situations than ours. 

Nutritious school meals for all

There are plenty of students who go to school just to have a meal, even if the meal is, at times, not of good quality. Despite positive developments in access to school meals, we would like to discuss the issue of nutrition. The reality is that snacks included in school meals are not always balanced, even though we have seen significant improvements in terms of their nutritional quality. 

We also believe that it is essential to provide inclusive meals that feed people, regardless of their social class or position. But this is often neglected. For instance, depending on the schools, some of the meals served to students are of low nutritional quality, which undoubtedly affect students’ health and performance. 

Reducing food waste at schools

We would like to raise another issue. Research conducted across two public municipal elementary schools in São Paulo has shown that 26.3% of the food served in these schools is wasted because students do not finish it. This represents a large amount of waste and can have a very negative impact on the environment. Could one of the main reasons for this waste be the low nutritional quality of the meals served, which causes students to lose their appetite and not finish their meals?  

Regarding waste, we are proposing some measures that can be taken to reduce it. We suggest to: a) offer more varied and better quality meals, with options that please students and encourage consumption; b) implement monitoring and inventory management systems to avoid excess and better plan food purchases; c) provide education on healthy and sustainable eating, raising students’ awareness of the importance of avoiding food waste, and d) donate remaining food that is in good condition to NGOs, nursing homes or social projects. 

We are aware that efforts have been made to improve the quality of school meals; for instance, the School Food Council, together with teachers and volunteers, are trying to improve how the National School Meals Policy is being implemented. Still, we believe we need greater coordination between food policies and public educational institutions. This is why we are excited to run a Children’s Workshop on nutrition to discuss these issues and make our voices heard.  

Learn more about Children’s Workshops: https://nutritiondialogues.org/fr/ressources/les-ateliers-pour-enfants/