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Easing hungers Feeding Mind

In Guatemala, nearly half of the children under five suffer from chronic malnutrition.To improve diets, FAO is working with the government and local communities to produce schools meals using healthy, locally-sourced ingredients.

Duration 8m27s

Edit Version Clean

Video Type B Roll Video

Date 11/04/2018 9:27 AM

File size 625.76 MB

Unique ID UF2T2T

All editorial uses permitted

Production details and shotlist

UNFAO Source FAO Video

Shotlist Chiquimula municipality, Chiquimula province, Guatemala - June 15, 2018

1. Aerial drone shot of countryside

2. Exterior of school, students arriving

3. Students washing hands before meal

4. Volunteer scooping out rice

5. Students in serving line for meal

6. Volunteers handing out school meals to students

7. Students picking up meals from serving window

8. Students eating fish cakes, vegetables, tortillas, rice and bananas

9. Students eating at school

10. Close up of student’s food

11. Students eating meal

12. Girl eating her food

13. Students playing in schoolyard

14. Boys playing soccer/football in schoolyard

15. Mothers and students waiting outside classroom

16. Wide view of cafeteria

17. Students eating school meal

18. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Ana María Manchamés Ramírez, Mother: “This new model of school feeding] means that our children have more energy to learn and study, to grow up healthier and stronger. It also means that parents can send them to school every day, on time, and for the full length of the school day.”

Sololá, Guatemala - June 13, 2018

19. View of church and street in town

20. Parents and children in town park

21. Woman pushing daughter in toy car

22. Girl playing with toy

23. Mother feeding daughter a snack

Chiquimula municipality, Chiquimula province, Guatemala - June 16, 2018

24. Young girl outside shack

Tejutla municipality, San Marcos department, Guatemala - June 11, 2018

25. Girl playing on slide in schoolyard

Guatemala City, Guatemala - June 17, 2018

26. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Jairo Flores, Parliamentary Front Against Hunger: “Here in Guatemala we have over 46% of our children under 5 years old with chronic malnutrition and around 140 children die each year from hunger. Naturally, if we wish to think about our future as a different type of country, we must combat hunger, even more so for those most vulnerable, which are the Guatemalan youth.”

Chiquimula municipality, Chiquimula province, Guatemala - June 15, 2018

27. Students picking up meals from serving line

28. Wide view of cafeteria

29. Girls eating meals

Guatemala City, Guatemala - June 14, 2018

30. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Dr. Oscar Hugo López, Minister of Education, Guatemala: “This is a program that is solid and intergral; a program that will be sustainable; a program that will grow gradually, because we began with an amount of money that is double what was assigned before to school feeding, but it will continue to increase every year until the conditions reached are such that these allow, to a great extent, for a programme that will leave an stamp on education in our country, and in Guatemalan society in general.”

Tejutla municipality, San Marcos department, Guatemala - June 11, 2018

31. Girls eating lunch at school

32. Volunteers serving food and drinks to students during school meal

33. Dulce Maria Díaz Pérez eating with her friends

34. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Dulce María Díaz Pérez, Student: “Before when they were giving us a snack only and coffee and bread, I did feel somewhat weak. If I ran I got tired very quickly and I was always very sleepy. Now I feel a bit more active, a bit happier and healthier, and better.”

35. Dulce performing activity in front of class

36. Close up of Dulce performing

Chiquimula municipality, Chiquimula province, Guatemala - June 16, 2018

37. Man buying vegetables at farmers’ market

38. Produce for sale at market

39. Woman adding more potatoes to display at market

Tejutla municipality, San Marcos department, Guatemala - June 11, 2018

40. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Julio César Longo Maldonado, Deputy, Congress of Guatemala: “It is contributing to community-based development in Guatemala, because apart from the school meals – which is precisely the pretext for this law – we are also also nurturing an economic movement in the local economies.”

41. Workers sorting vegetables at distribution center for school meal food supplies

42. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Elvia Anabelly de León Barrios, Director, El Horizonte Primary School: “We are currently using 61.17% of our school feeding budget to buy the necessary ingredients from local family farmers, and the rest is used to purchase from convenience stores. Therefore we are giving more participation to family farming, including from farmers’ organizations or enterprises made up by the same parents who can supply the school with all the fruits and vegetables and some basic grains that we need to prepare the school meals.”

43. Farmer Rubelsi Gómez preparing onions to deliver to school

44. Close up of Gómez peeling onions

45. Gómez and helper carry onions to distribution center

46. View of onions on way to center

47. Egg producer Elodia López Gabriel walking on her farm

48. Chickens eating

49. López feeding chickens

50. López cleaning eggs

51. Eggs ready for sale

52. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Elodia López Gabriel, Egg producer: “Thanks to the School Feeding Law we can lift and empower ourselves as a family, and not only us but also the children and students in our community.”

53. Rubelsi Gómez delivering food to El Horizonte school

54. Gómez brings food into school kitchen

55. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Rubelsi Gómez, Farmer: “In previous years, the profits were smaller, since we were only working with three little schools and there were many producers. Nowadays we do see profits because we are working with more schools so we producers are reaping the benefits of having more markets to which to sell our products.”

Chiquimula municipality, Chiquimula province, Guatemala - June 15, 2018

56. Students sing and dance in class

57. Girl singing in class

58. Aerial drone view of countryside

END

Script In a region plagued by drought, school volunteers are preparing a lunch worthy of a feast.

On today’s menu: fish cakes, mixed vegetables, rice, tortillas and bananas.

Students near Chiquimula, in eastern Guatemala, have only recently enjoyed such meals at their school. Not long ago, they had noodles once or twice a week, along with a simple corn-flour drink.

In this so-called “dry corridor” of the country, where rainfall is inconsistent, many families have struggled to provide their children proper nutrition, whether at school or at home.

A new national law mandating healthy meals at schools is changing that.

"(This new model of school feeding) means that our children have more energy to learn and study, to grow up healthier and stronger. It also means that parents can send them to school every day, on time, and for the full length of the school day, " said Ana María Manchamés Ramírez, a mother.

Guatemala suffers from one of the highest rates of chronic malnutrition for children under five in the world. The problem is especially severe in rural and predominantly indigenous communities.

Malnutrition raises children’s risk of dying from common infections, and often leads to stunted growth - both physical and mental.

"Here in Guatemala we have over 46% of our children under 5 years old have chronic malnutrition and around 140 children die each year from hunger. Naturally, if we wish to think about our future as a different type of country, we must combat hunger, especially for those most vulnerable, the Guatemalan youth, " said Jairo Flores, Parliamentary Front Against Hunger.

With technical input and close policy guidance from the Food and Agriculture Organization, Guatemalan lawmakers enacted a school-feeding law in 2017 to ensure proper class-time nourishment for two and a half million students across the country.

"This is a program that is solid and integral; a program that will be sustainable; a program that will grow gradually, because we began with an amount of money that is double what was assigned before to school feeding, but it will continue to increase every year until the conditions reached that allow, for a programme that will leave an stamp on education in our country, and in Guatemalan society in general, " said Dr. Oscar Hugo López, Minister of Education, Guatemala.

Students say the meals are already making a difference.

"Before when they were giving us a snack only and coffee and bread, I did feel somewhat weak. If I ran I got tired very quickly and I was always very sleepy. Now I feel a bit more active, a bit happier and healthier, and better, " said Dulce María Díaz Pérez, Student.

The feeding law also helps stimulate local economies. It requires that more than half of the produce for school meals be purchased from local farmers, a proportion that will rise to 70 percent by 2022.

"It is contributing to community-based development in Guatemala, because apart from the school meals – which is precisely the pretext for this law – we are also nurturing an economic movement in the local economies, " said Julio César Longo Maldonado, Deputy, Congress of Guatemala.

"We are currently using 61.17% of our school feeding budget to buy the necessary ingredients from local family farmers, and the rest is used to purchase from convenience stores. Therefore we are giving more participation to family farming, including from farmers’ organizations or enterprises made up by the same parents who can supply the school with all the fruits and vegetables and some basic grains that we need to prepare the school meals, " said Elvia Anabelly de León Barrios, Director, El Horizonte Primary School.

Single mother Elodia López Gabriel depends heavily on egg production to provide for her two teenage children and elderly father in the hills of western Guatemala.

Local schools have become important clients for her farm of 155 hens, maize and other vegetables.

" Thanks to the School Feeding Law we can lift and empower ourselves as a family, and not only us but also the children and students in our community, " said Elodia López Gabriel, Egg producer.

It’s a sentiment shared by many farmers across the region.

“In previous years, the profits were smaller, since we were only working with three little schools and there were many producers. Now we see profits because we are working with more schools so we producers are reaping the benefits of having more markets to which to sell our products, ” Rubelsi Gómez, Farmer.

As Guatemala feeding law scales up nationwide, it is binding communities together, to give children a healthier start in life and local economies a stronger lifeline.

ENDS

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