“The objective is for municipal schools to easily include menu options with a greater variety of plant foods, according to the recommendations from the Ministry of Health, through its Food Guide for the Brazilian Population, and the World Health Organization.”

More than 170,000 students will have more vegetables, legumes, grains and fruits on their plates, thanks to the Conscious Food Brazil program.

Last week, the municipality of Salvador signed a cooperation agreement with Humane Society International and Mercy for Animals to launch the Sustainable Salvador program in municipal schools.

This program will provide more than 10 million new, tasty and healthy meals a year to students every year.

The recipes have been developed according to the National School Feeding Program keeping the students’ needs, tastes, and food culture in mind.

The initiative will also have the organisations provide needed support in terms of right resources and materials to the schools involved.

Moreover, the participating institutions will not incur any additional costs and organizations will provide them with a team of nutritionists, chefs and menu development experts. The schools will also receive practical training in plant-based meal preparation in addition to nutritional and environmental education.

Municipal Secretary of Education, Marcelo Oliveira, in a translated statement said: “The idea is to instill and create long-term changes in students’ eating habits.

“Today in Brazil we know that children, mainly from the poorest strata of the population, which is the target public of the municipal school system, do not consume the recommended servings of fruit and vegetables, and protein sources are concentrated on products of animal origin, so our proposal is that we can encourage our children to form a healthier palate for the rest of their lives.

Thayana Oliveira, manager of Food Policies at HSI in Brazil, added: “The objective is for municipal schools to easily include menu options with a greater variety of plant foods, such as fruits, vegetables, legumes and cereals, which form the basis of a healthy diet, according to the recommendations from the Ministry of Health, through its Food Guide for the Brazilian Population, and the World Health Organization,” says Thayana Oliveira, manager of Food Policies at HSI in Brazil.

Plant-based surge in Brazil

In the last few years, the country, which is the world’s largest beef exporter, has seen a dramatic shift toward plant-based diets.

The number of vegetarians in Brazil has nearly doubled over a six-year period. According to a poll by research firm Ibope, 30 million people (14%) of Brazilians, reported being vegetarian or vegan in 2018.

Aside from health goals, the commitment will also help Salvador achieve critical climate, and sustainability targets set by international and Brazilian authorities.

According to estimates, the new plant-based meal program will help cut 75,000 tons of CO2 emissions. In addition, 400 million liters of water and 16,000 hectares of forest will be saved.

• Read: NYC schools to now serve vegan-only meals to 930,000 students every Friday

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Mohsina Dodhiya

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