The Ministry of Education announced it intends to introduce nutrition gardens in Basic Schools across the country in 2014 to help educate children about good nutrition. 
The Deputy Minister of Education for Basic Education, Dulce de Jesus Soares, said this initiative is very important and will contribute towards reducing the incidence of mal nutrition in Timor-Leste and reintroduce fods that provide good nutrition and that improve the health of the students.
“People lack in knowledge and this education about nutrition needs to start during basic education,” said the Deputy Minister during the celebrations of the World Day for Food held at the Dili Convention Center, in Dili.
She said, the introduction of the new basic school curriculum will reflect this initiative and students will learn from the nutrition gardens about what foods provide good nutrition and also learn how to properly cook these foods.
He added in future this initiative will be rolled out to secondary and higher education schools so students learn about the importance of growing their own vegetables and also how they can cook food that provides them with good nutrition and improves their health.
The Ministry of Education will provide training to teachers on nutrition content promotion, hygiene as well as food security.
The Deputy Minister called on the Association of Parents and Teachers to start implementing the schools’ nutrition garden project and start growing foods that can be used in the menu of the school feeding program.
“If we do this we can ensure the sustainability of the school feeding program and children will get good nutrition that will given them energy to be able to focus during the teaching and learning process,” she said.
Meanwhile the President of Commission F (for education, gender and veteran affairs) MP Virgilio da Costa Hornai appreciates and supports the plan but reminded this plan needs to be reflected in the Ministry of Education’s Annual Plan.
“We support all these initiatives even if programs are developed that are not contained in the Basic School Legislation in place for Timor-Leste,” said MP Hornai.
Hiam Health, a local organization that fights mal nutrition in the country said they have recommended this initiative to the government a long time ago.
“The Ministry of Education should insert this program into the basic school curriculum because through the education we can reduce the rates of mal nutrition,” she said.
