Researching school feeding programmes

Since it's been a month since we left the UK, I really need to get over my blogging nerves and get on with it. So here's what we've been up to recently.....

One of the main reasons why we left in May was so that I could complete my research project and submit by the end of the month. We made it up to Alto Ortiga, where Ethan's cousin, Pete, is a Peace Corps. Pete was absolutely amazing, dedicating tonnes of his time to traipsing round his village asking community members about their experiences and opinions of the school feeding programme and the school garden, translating for my benefit as we went, as well as getting all of the children at school to draw food diaries. All because my Spanish is awful! And because Pete's done an amazingly good job of befriending everyone in his village. Despite doing a lot of chatting, we still managed to fit in time for watching grubs being squeezed out of a goat's eyebrow, swimming in the amazingly gorgeous river and waiting patiently while I tried to demonstrate my equality in the world of lighting cooking fires. With the additional help of another Peace Corps, Kathryn based out of Santiago, we also spoke to the School Nutrition and Health team for the province of Veraguas.

All of this information was speedily culminated into just under 6000 words of a research project over 2 days! Let's say it's not my best piece of writing, but it was submitted in time. In fact with 1 minute to spare before the Info Plaza closed! My conclusion was that Panama has a very well established school feeding system that admirably supplies each child in the country with a significant portion of their calories and micronutrients each day. It's also amazingly well supported by parents, with families supplying firewood for the food's preparation and mothers participating in a cooking rota. Where they exist, the school gardens are an excellent compliment, introducing many children to vegetables they wouldn't otherwise taste in a country that specializes in fried staples, meat and coffee.

However, I felt that the underlying causes of malnutrition... caused by either too few micronutrients or too much fried carbohydrate (and really, obesity is a pretty obvious emerging problem) weren't being sufficiently tackled. People don't understand the value of the fortified foods they're being given, or the reasons behind a balanced diet. I realise that the same criticism could be levied at many people in the UK too. But without an understanding of vitamins and minerals, where's the incentive to grow a diverse kitchen garden? Or to purchase fortified foods that cost more? Or stray away from fried staples that have kept your family going for the generations that you can remember? In addition, there's also a problem of intestinal parasites. Talking to one mother, she said almost all of the children have them. Delightful! But that one has been recognised nationally and WASH schemes are gradually being rolled out.

For me, the whole research project was really interesting. Such a long-standing, well developed feeding programme, with centralised distribution and nutritional content dictated by statistics collected on a yearly basis, contrasted with my experiences in Malawi, where feeding programmes were yet to reach many parts of the country and the majority focused solely on carbohydrate intake. The project was also a great way to engage with a country that might one day be my home.... I can't imagine that the average real estate agent's brochure contains statistics on poverty disparities, nutrition deficits or methods for soil enrichment being used in schools! So to Pete, Kathryn, the people of Ortiga and Ethan for suggesting the project and holding my hand all the way through it.... thank you.