In the land of feijoada, a dish made with pork and red beans, veganism is gaining ground. In 2018, 14% of the Brazilian population said they were vegan or vegetarian. A figure that makes Brazil the third most vegetarian country in the world. To stimulate this greening of plates, the Brazilian municipality of Salvador has decided to involve school canteens. Under a new agreement, students will receive 10 million healthy, sustainable and mostly vegan meals every year.
This initiative is part of the ‘Conscious Food Brazil’ program adopted by the Municipality of Salvador in collaboration with the NGOs Humane Society International and Mercy for Animals. It plans to provide healthy, plant-based meals to the 170,000 students in municipal schools, taking environmental and health considerations into account, the report said. the beetroot† Participating establishments are supported by partner organisations, who put them in touch with nutritionists, chefs and institutional kitchen specialists to develop new menus.
These “healthy and sustainable” meals will be designed to meet the students’ needs, tastes and family food traditions, the municipality of Salvdaor said. On the menu: grains, fruits, legumes and vegetables. “The idea is to drive and create long-term changes in students’ eating habits”said Salvador’s municipal secretary of education, Marcelo Oliveira, quoted by the beetroot†
“Today we know in Brazil that children, mainly from the poorest parts of the population, the target group of the municipal school system, do not consume the recommended portions of fruits and vegetables, and protein sources are focused on products of animal origin. origin.”
The integration of these new menus will be done at no extra cost to schools, indicates the beetroot† In addition to helping students adopt healthy habits, the Conscious Food Brazil program aims to set a new precedent for sustainable food in Brazil. The organizations behind the project have revealed that this initiative will save 75,000 tons of CO2 emissions, as well as 400 million liters of water, and prevent the deforestation of 16,000 hectares of forest.