Healthy Children

This project has as main goal to improve the quality of life of children and their communities, increasing awareness of the vital issues related to nutrition, physical activity and gardening. Through a series of community-based interventions that include monitoring of children's BMI, trainings and implementation of school gardens, the aim is to develop a sustainable, community-based, public-private partnership model for improving nutrition, increasing food security and promoting healthy lifestyles among disadvantaged children, families and communities. This project has reached over 2,5 million children of 50 different municipalities in Brazil over the past 20 years. We have had improvements in health, increased availability of fresh foods for school meals and promotion of adequate nutrition on a daily basis. Over the past 5 years, we have built 95 school gardens; promoted the construction of over 400 home gardens; trained teachers and cafeteria workers; and built successful partnerships with local governments and communities. In an assessment done by the organisation, we have learned that 76% of the parents said that the school garden has made their children eat more fruits and vegetables and 33% of the children changed their eating habits after the program. Promotion of the activities, funding for new sites and expansion and possible volunteer involvement, on the ground.