International School Meals Day (ISMD) is a campaign started in 2010 by the organization Children in Scotland to emphasize the connection between healthy eating and learning. It has since grown in popularity and today includes many major supporters and participants from around the globe. The day is being celebrated this year on March 14.
The theme for ISMD 2019 is "Who makes my meal?" The aim is to encourage young people to learn more about where their food comes from.
In Mozambique, primary school children in select schools in the Maputo Province understand that their lunch comes from farmers in the United States. The daily fortified, protein-rich corn-soy porridge they receive is delivered and prepared thanks to Planet Aid and ADPP Mozambique's Food for Knowledge Project, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program.
Beginning in mid-2017, Food for Knowledge launched a new Home Grown School Feeding Garden component. This new initiative is establishing small farms of three to five hectares each near select schools, with the aim of providing a local source of food that complements the fortified corn-soy porridge shipped from the States.
Watch the above video about the Home Grown School Feeding Gardens, and visit Planetaid.org/FFK to learn more about Food for Knowledge's holistic strategy to improve nutrition and educational outcomes in Mozambique.