The Sustainable School Feeding Network is a strategy promoted by the Government of Brazil to jointly and broadly create solutions to the challenges of school feeding under the principle of the human right to adequate food.
The Sustainable School Feeding Network (RAES, for its acronym in Spanish) is an International Cooperation tool developed by the Government of Brazil, through the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC/MRE) and the National Fund for Educational Development (FNDE/MEC), with the support of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), through the project Consolidation of School Feeding Programs in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The RAES was a response of these Brazilian institutions to the United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition (2016-2025), promulgated by the UN General Assembly in 2016 after the recommendations of the Second International Conference on Nutrition, in Rome, in 2014. The Decade records the commitment of world leaders to establish national policies aimed at eradicating hunger and malnutrition, seeking the transformation of food systems in favor of nutritious diets and access to healthy food for all.
The Network seeks to support the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean in the implementation and reformulation of their school feeding programs, under the principle of the human right to adequate food. This means supplying all students with healthy, adequate, tasty food according to the local culture, in appropriate spaces, associated with food and nutrition education actions.
The creation of the Network took into account the vast Brazilian experience accumulated on the subject of school feeding over more than 65 years. The program is characterized by its wide coverage, benefiting, daily and universally, 41 million students. It also considered the experience of international cooperation developed since 2009 in conjunction with the FAO .
Since 2018, the RAES has made efforts to promote dialogue, develop capacities, exchange experiences and information, with the aim of consolidating school feeding programs in the Latin American and Caribbean region and favoring the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
We are managers, technicians and collaborators from LAC countries who are responsible and committed to school feeding programs in our region.
Four axes base the work of the RAES:
Development of technical capacity
Exchange of experiences and information
Dialogues on the challenges imposed by the pandemic
Supporting countries in returning to schools
Video tutorial of the RAES page
Institutional video of the RAES
RAES timeline:
All signatory countries of FAO and WHO sign the Rome declaration on nutrition
2014
2016
Approval of the draft resolution in the UN Assembly – United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition – 2016/2025
Brazil decides to manage five networks:
- Public Food Purchases;
- Reduced Sodium Intake;
- Production of Food Guides;
- Government/Food and Nutritional Security;
- Sustainable School Feeding.
2017
2017
Preparation of the conceptual note of the Sustainable School Feeding Network (RAES) Definition of 3 axes:
- Exchange of experiences;
- Staff training
- Dissemination of information.
launch of the RAES in the Week of Agriculture and Food, with Germany, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Spain, Granada, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Italy, Jamaica, Panama, Paraguay, St . Vincent, Uruguay and Venezuela.
2018
2019
Delivery of letter of intent to the Milan Forum Underlining the importance of School Feeding (AE) as a mechanism of action to achieve the SDGs:
Elaboration and realization of the Diploma in 12 countries (English and Spanish version);
Two technical tours
Dialogues and regional symposiums with 21 countries on school feeding supply in the pandemic;
- 1st edition of the Healthy Life Course for 1,800 students;
- Exchanges of experiences between countries.
2020
2021
- Regional dialogue on food waste;
- Implementation of actions in El Salvador;
- Exchange of experience between governments;
- Joint strategy to strengthen PAEs in the region (2020-2021)
- 2nd edition of the Healthy Life Course for nearly 3,000 students.
- Webnar on different modalities of EC in the pandemic.
Authorities views about RAES
The Sustainable School Feeding Network consolidates, through international technical cooperation, Brazil's commitment to improve the quality of school feeding and promote a healthier and more sustainable food system for the different countries of Latin America and the Caribbean
Within the consolidation of our Network, we have the necessary tools, based on international cooperation, to establish a new milestone for school feeding in Brazil and in the world. Each and every one of the actions on this theme, from now, can be thought of in the context of this alliance, so we can give the necessary response to the challenges that were imposed to the countries from 2020.
Due to the discussions on the transformation of food systems and the revisions that school feeding programs underwent in the pandemic, the actions of the RAES gain even more relevance, especially in this new stage, with its formalization and greater links with the countries. It is essential that FAO support and participate in initiatives of this nature.
