See the interview with Oralia Robles, who works in the school feeding programme of El Salvador
Paulo Beraldo
While it’s true that each country has its own challenges when it comes to school feeding programmes – whether it’s building regulatory frameworks, improving school infrastructure, or strengthening family farming – there are many common goals. Among these are promoting best practices and strategies to ensure healthy nutrition, conducting food education activities, increasing the public purchases of fresh products from family farming, and enhancing the quality of school menus. This is what Oralia Robles says.
Oralia works in the school feeding programme of El Salvador’s Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology and shares her experience in an interview with the Sustainable School Feeding Network (RAES). Oralia informs that the country has made significant progress in the past decade and highlights the support from the Brazil-FAO International Cooperation in exchanging experiences, enhancing the capacities of professionals, and supporting the implementation of the Sustainable School methodology.
What are the main contributions you would highlight from the Brazil-FAO International Cooperation’s support to El Salvador’s school feeding programme?
Regarding the support we have received from Brazil-FAO Cooperation, we have been working together on various initiatives since 2012. One of them was the Sustainable School methodology. We initially started with just 9 educational centers, but we have been able to scale up. From those 9, we expanded to 20, and then reached 450 schools where we provide adequate, diversified, and balanced nutrition for our students.
Another very important area where we collaborate with Brazil-FAO is in the context of food and nutrition education, addressing it through various strategies for the educational community. We have conducted several training for professionals from different levels in different regions of the country. We have also extended these activities to parents through workshops, both theoretical and practical. And, of course, we have trained and educated students, achieving meaningful and experiential learning.
Can you provide some details about the progress of public procurement in the country?
Public procurement was truly the result of coordinated efforts among different institutions. While it’s true that the school feeding programme is executed by the Ministry of Education, it’s important to highlight the collaborative work of the Ministries of Health, Agriculture, and Territorial Development. This collaboration allowed us to organize local food producers to improve the mechanisms of public procurement of food in the regions, as well as strengthen the capacities of the educational community, especially family farmers, which are responsible for producing and supplying food to the girls and boys in our educational system.
We have made progress in organizing family farmers, establishing school feeding committees in educational centers, and coordinating actions with municipal governments. In some cases, municipal governance structures were also created to support the identification of suppliers.
It’s important to mention that the Government of El Salvador has allocated funds to guarantee the purchase of a basic basket of non-perishable foods to the school feeding programme. Furthermore, a mechanism for transferring funds to educational centers was established. This allows schools to establish contracts with family farming, purchasing fresh food weekly, and payment to suppliers is made upon delivery of the product.
When you look at the experiences and exchanges promoted in this meeting of the Sustainable School Nutrition Network, what do you believe can be adapted to El Salvador?
Each of our countries has different experiences and realities, but I am confident that this exchange provides us with many important elements aimed at identifying strengths and areas for improvement in school feeding programmes. We can replicate and adapt some strategies to strengthen food procurement mechanisms, propose teacher training plans, promote healthy eating habits, enhance the skills of food handlers, and encourage healthy lifestyles among students. It’s important to emphasize that this network aims to unite all countries to achieve common goals and targets for the benefit of the girls and boys in each country.
