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Armenia’s School Meals Program is viewed not only as a means of providing children with healthy food and nutrition, but also as an important component of education, biodiversity conservation, and the development of sustainable food systems.
This approach was presented at the side event titled “Role of National Education Systems in Advancing Food Security and Implementation of Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF),” held on the sidelines of the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP17), taking place in Yerevan.
The event was organized in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of Armenia, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), and the School Meals and Child Welfare Institution (also known as the School Nutrition and Child Welfare Agency).
Representatives of Armenia, Brazil, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, and Rwanda participated in the discussion, presenting their countries’ experiences in organizing school meals and addressing the interconnections between education, agriculture, and environmental protection.
Armenian Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Zhanna Andreasyan emphasized that the School Meals Program in Armenia has not only social but also educational and environmental significance, helping foster responsible consumer behavior among children.
“We are talking, first and foremost, not only about eating and healthy food, but also about shaping public behavior through it. In particular, behavior that takes into account the need to preserve biodiversity and address climate change, and that also entails a reassessment of human consumer behavior,” the minister said.
According to her, the School Meals Program is an important part of the educational process. The mandatory “Healthy Lifestyle” course has already been introduced in schools, and one of its key components is providing knowledge about healthy nutrition.
Andreasyan also highlighted the experience of establishing greenhouses and intensive orchards at schools, which allows children not only to acquire theoretical knowledge but also to learn about the food production process in practice.
“We have experience in building greenhouses and intensive orchards at schools, which help, on the one hand, teach very important knowledge and, on the other, make all this part of a unified chain and incorporate the provision of food in schools, to some extent, into a self-sufficient chain. I believe that our experience has been very successful in every respect, and today’s discussion will provide an opportunity to present it once again,” the minister said.
Addressing the program’s future development, Andreasyan said that one of the priorities is expanding it in Yerevan, as well as extending it beyond primary grades to higher grades.
“I consider expanding the program in Yerevan to be our most important task. As you know, all first- through fourth-grade students in our regions receive healthy food funded by the state. We are talking about more than 100,000 children. But the program must also cover Yerevan. We began piloting it in Yerevan this September, and at this point, we are determining which models would be more suitable for implementation in the capital, taking its specific characteristics into account,” Andreasyan said.
The minister emphasized that the program’s expansion must continue, since the need for healthy eating is not limited to primary education.
Addressing the importance of children’s direct interaction with nature, Andreasyan said that the ministry considers it important to organize hikes, camps, and outdoor classes with the aim of making them part of everyday school life.
The minister said that newly built schools where space allows will also have outdoor learning areas, small gardens, and pavilions where classes can be held.
Such initiatives, she said, help develop children’s practical skills by teaching them to navigate their surroundings and acquire the necessary knowledge through direct interaction with the environment.
“These are irreplaceable, basic skills, regardless of technological developments. I believe that every child of ours should have these skills,” she emphasized.
Matthew Hollingworth, Assistant Executive Director for Programme Operations at the United Nations World Food Programme, in turn, highly praised Armenia’s achievements, emphasizing that the country is among the international leaders in organizing school meals and linking them with local food systems.
In his assessment, the school meals model introduced in Armenia has transformative significance because it brings together several areas: children’s healthy nutrition, improved education quality, promotion of local production, job creation, and biodiversity conservation.
“We want Armenia to share its knowledge and show other countries how such programs can be implemented,” Hollingworth said.
It is important for children from an early age not only to receive healthy food but also to develop an understanding of its production, local food systems, soil health, biodiversity, and environmental protection, the WFP official said.
“Our role is to provide support, but this is an Armenian program. It was developed here and will bring major changes to the country in the long term. If every child goes through this system over time, we will see very significant positive changes in the coming years,” Hollingworth emphasized.
He reaffirmed that Armenia’s experience could serve as an example for other countries.
“Armenia is one of the pioneers of this approach and is showing the way forward. We very much hope that we will be able to develop this experience so that other countries can also follow Armenia’s example,” he concluded.
The first part of the discussion was devoted to political leadership for biodiversity, food security, and human capital development. Participants discussed how governments can align policies on education, food systems, and biodiversity conservation.
Speakers in the first session included Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of Armenia Anna Babajanyan; Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade of Armenia Robert Abisoghomonyan; Deputy Minister of Natural Resources, Ecology and Technical Supervision of Kyrgyzstan Almaz Musaev; and a representative of Indonesia’s Ministry of National Development Planning. Hollingworth also delivered remarks.
The second part of the discussion focused on school meals as a platform for implementing systemic change. The participants presented their countries’ experiences, including Daniel Balaban, Director of the WFP Centre of Excellence against Hunger in Brazil; Armenian Deputy Minister of Economy Arman Khojoyan; Sok Silo, Secretary General of Cambodia’s Council for Agricultural and Rural Development; Olivier Kamana, Permanent Secretary of Rwanda’s Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources; and Hiroyuki Nishiura, a representative of Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
The delegates also emphasized the role of school meals programs in ensuring food security, developing local economies, and preserving biodiversity.
The discussions also presented the experience of Armenia’s national School Meals Program. The program is implemented through cooperation between the Government of Armenia and the United Nations World Food Programme. Currently, around 104,000 primary school students in public schools across all regions of Armenia receive healthy, hot meals at school every day.
The participating delegates emphasized that food security, healthy nutrition, and biodiversity conservation are interconnected and require comprehensive approaches. In this context, school meals programs were viewed as a long-term investment in children’s health, the economic development of communities, and environmental protection.
As part of the event, the “From Biodiversity to the School Table” experience, created using virtual reality technologies, was also presented. It offers a 360-degree virtual tour of school gardens, greenhouses, farms, bakeries, and school cafeterias in Armenia, while also introducing visitors to the whole-grain value chain.
The virtual experience will be available at the Armenia Pavilion in the COP17 Green Zone from October 19 to 30, daily from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.