gms | German Medical Science

As part of an initiative to alleviate hunger and malnutrition in Brazil, this project is an intersectoral partnership between a civil society organization, the private sector (international food industry company) and the public sector (local governments). It has been developed since 2016 in six Brazilian communities. The “Instituto Melhores Dias” is responsible for the project development, which bring health and nutrition education to school-age children and their families, through the implementation of home and community gardens. Brazil has a federal school meal program and most municipal education departments having nutritionists in their teams. However, in reality, schools do not receive all the products necessary for an adequate school meal. In addition, cafeteria workers and teachers also lack the proper training to make the school a nutritionally healthy environment. Many schools prefer to offer processed products, without fresh fruits or vegetables, rarely serving these on the weekly menu. This health educational program was designed to teach the school community how to seek healthy eating alternatives and promote healthier lifestyles. Over 120,000 children have been reached with the interventions. We combine the implementation of school gardens with monitoring of children’s nutritional status (BMI and anemia levels) and continuous training for teachers and school staff. School and home gardens are introduced from the second year of the program onwards, as a means of improving access to fresh food and creating income-generating opportunities through the sale of surplus products (in home gardens). In addition, the educational component of the program includes themes of health, sanitation, environment and nutrition focusing on several factors that directly affect the well-being of children and families in the communities served.

Lessons learned: After three years of activities, we have conducted an assessment of the impacts of our educational interventions. This presentation brings forth the strengths and limitations of a nutrition education project for children. The strengths found include the importance of a solid intersectoral partnership, where local governments need to be involved from the start, as well as the private sector. A non-profit organization is not a research institution, so there are limitations to our evaluation interventions, such as not having control groups, which makes it difficult to attest the direct results of our actions. However, several testimonials from parents and teachers as well as reports have been collected throughout the years indicating that health education is a powerful and effective tool to bring change for a more sustainable and healthy world.