Today’s news / Queen tastes Brazil’s school meal program
Queen Mary and Minister Lars Aagaard (M) went to the canteen during their visit to a local school in Brazil. Photo: Ida Marie Odgaard/Ritzau Scanpix

Queen tastes Brazil’s school meal program

Queen Mary of Denmark experienced Brazil’s constitutionally mandated school meals program by dining with students at Centro Educacional do Lago in Brasília. Initiated in the 1950s, the program aims to reduce hunger and has been successful enough to be included in Brazil’s 1988 constitution, ensuring all public school students access to quality meals. Managed by state and municipal departments with federal funding, the program mandates purchasing from small farms, prioritizing minimally processed foods to fuel a sustainable economy and support small producers. Brazil’s efforts were acknowledged by the FAO for significantly reducing hunger, particularly evident when the country was removed from the world hunger map in 2014. However, challenges reemerged during COVID-19, leading to an increase in the program’s budget to about DKK 6.75 billion in early 2023.