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Local school-feeding programmes creating opportunities for female farmers.

By Gillian Smith, Resident FAO Representative
THE school-feeding programme in Guyana dates as far back as 40 years ago and continues to positively impact the nutrition and health of children and adolescents receiving nursery, primary or secondary education, which represents some 48.6 per cent of the total learner population in the country.

In Guyana, the National School Feeding Programme is divided into four sub programmes. These are: the Peanut butter and Cassava Bread Snack Programme, the Community-Based Hot Meal Programme, the Juice and Biscuit Snack Programme, and, more recently, the Breakfast Programme.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)’s School Feeding Programmes provided school meals to about 388 million school children in 161 countries, making these programmes the most extensive safety net worldwide.

The school meal programme in Guyana is providing healthy and nutritious meals for students while linking female smallholder farmers to local procurement and market initiatives to ensure that they have access to consistent income-generating opportunities.

BLUE FLAME WOMEN’S GROUP AND SCHOOL FEEDING
The Blue Flame Women’s Group is a women-led, community-based agro-processing operation based in Hosororo Region One (Barima- Waini). The group has benefitted from the school-feeding programme. They produce cassava, cocoa, coffee and cassareep and, with the use of a shade house, they are growing herbs, tomatoes and vegetables.

Cocoa and other raw materials are purchased from farmers in the community and are then processed at the group’s factory to make various products. These products are then packaged and sold throughout the country but, primarily, cater to the Breakfast School Feeding Programme for four schools in Mabaruma.

Cocoa production ongoing
Christina James, Chairperson of the Group, said: “[They] have been supplying the schools with our locally made cassava bread and our cassareep and seasoning and they were able to purchase some vegetables as well from us.

This has been a great help to our group to market our products. The school-feeding programme has benefitted me as well as my grandchildren, members of the community and especially all the women in the group who are also farmers.”

SEEING THE RESULTS
Over the past year, the FAO, in partnership with the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security has been implementing a global project titled “Enhancing production and access to nutrition-dense food through social protection programmes”.

Through this project, FAO –Guyana, together with our partners has been working to deliver on the following products:
– A rapid assessment on the state of the national school-feeding programmes in Guyana
– A policy framework for the development of the school-feeding policy of Guyana
– Pilot design for a home-grown school-feeding programme
– An assessment of the status of agricultural production of smallholder farms in Regions Five and Nine
– Development of farmer field-school curricula
– Coherence study and policy paper on agriculture and social protection programmes in Guyana

The results from these initiatives are promising and show great potential for increased access to healthy and nutritious food produced locally to the most vulnerable in the country as well as creating sustainable market outlets for smallholder farmers and groups such as the Blue Flame Women’s Group.

THE WAY FORWARD
Interest in the school-feeding programme has grown tremendously and, with the development of a National School-Feeding Policy Framework, we will be able to advance to a multi-sectoral involvement of various actors, including governments, international organisations, private sector, and civil society as well as the integration of smallholder farmers and groups into the school-feeding programme supply network.

For more information on the project, please email us FAOGY@fao.org.

Original text from Guyana Chronicle: https://guyanachronicle.com/2022/03/26/local-school-feeding-programmes-creating-opportunities-for-female-farmers/