Luanda — Angolan minister of Education Luísa Grilo pointed out Wednesday in Cotonou, Benin, the School Lunch Programme as a multi-sector challenge.

The minister, who is attending the 23rd Global Forum on Child Nutrition in Schools, sponsored by the United Nations and international partners, said that programme covers the Ministries of Social Action and Family, Health, Agriculture and Finance.

Luísa Grilo, who was speaking at the forum, spoke of the experience of school canteen in Angola as a source of community development, through family farming, where women are the key figure in the preparation of school meals grown at home.

The minister defended that the School Feeding Programme, in view of its complexity, should be seen by the States as a strategic instrument of the Children's Social Protection Policy.

"Angola joined the School Food Coalition in 2021, having signed the Declaration of Commitment, assuming the commitment to update the National School Meal Programme, whose action is in progress", she explained.

Round table

On the other hand, at the invitation of the World Food Program (WFP), Center of Excellence against Hunger, the minister participated in a round table dedicated to the Member States of the Citizenship of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) on the impact of family farming on the Programmes of School Feeding.

On the occasion, she highlighted food, nutrition and school health as strategic axes of the CPLP Multilateral Cooperation Action Plan, in the field of education, recently approved by the Member States.

The forum intends to revitalize the School Feeding Programmes in the World and its value chain with greater gender integration, promoting a strong school lunch coalition to nourish children through fruits and vegetables in schools.

The platform wants greater collaboration from the private sector and family farming for more nutritious school meals.