Elementary school children in Venezuela having lunch. Photo: YVKE Mundial/File photo.
Venezuela’s School Food Program (PAE) is serving 4.6 million students in more than 20,000 schools across the country for free, accounting for 90% of all students in the country.
Adriana Urdaneta, president of the National Institute of Nutrition (INN), reported this information this Tuesday, May 27, when presenting the country’s progress in school nutrition during Nutrition Week in Rome 2025. She explained how Venezuela is a pioneer in incorporating nutrition into the Bolivarian curriculum through the PAE, a universal, territorial, community-based, and sovereign model that guarantees the rights and nutritional needs of students, as reported by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
“In our country, food and education are state priorities,” Urdaneta said. “They are safeguarded in the national Constitution, enshrined as a right in Article 103, education, and Article 305, food.” She added that “nutritional education, as part of the PAE, embraces the 4S Pro food model, which consists of promoting the production, distribution, and consumption of healthy, tasty, safe, and sovereign [made] foods,” during her participation in the forum Successful Experiences with School Feeding in Latin America and the Caribbean: Keys to Nutrition in the Early Stages of Life, held at the headquarters of the World Food Program (WFP).
She also highlighted the work of the Homeland Cooks as key figures and guarantors of school food sovereignty.
As a representative for the Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC), Venezuela joined the Organizing Committee for Nutrition Week, where innovative proposals were presented to transform the food and agricultural systems for the benefit of social justice and sovereignty.
School Food Program To Serve 4 Million Children in Venezuela
This international event brings together governments, organizations, academics, and social movements from around the world to advance the implementation of equitable, sustainable nutrition policies, grounded in universal rights.
Venezuela’s delegation also includes Marilyn Di Luca, Venezuela’s permanent representative to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and Franco Manrique, deputy minister of food policies at the Venezuelan Ministry for Nutrition.
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
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