On January 28, the Laboratório Urbano de Políticas Públicas Alimentares (LUPPA – Urban Laboratory of Public Food Policies) held the first seminar of the program’s 5th edition, online. The activity marked the start of LUPPA’s 2026 training program, which throughout the year will include seminars and workshops for the cities taking part in the current edition.

Under the theme “A Hora e a Vez da Educação Alimentar” (Food Education’s Time Has Come), the meeting took as its starting point the presentation of the policy brief of the same name, prepared by Instituto Comida e Cultura, and fostered debate on the role of Food and Nutrition Education (EAN) in promoting the Human Right to Adequate Food, Food and Nutrition Security, and health. The discussion was led by Ariela Doctors and Erika Fischer, from Instituto Comida e Cultura, and also included presentations of municipal experiences already under way.

During the seminar, the invited cities shared concrete EAN practices in different contexts. Contagem (MG) presented actions carried out within the municipality’s food security efforts, with emphasis on initiatives in community restaurants, food banks and community kitchens, integrating food education, the fight against food waste and health promotion. Nova Lima (MG) shared its experience with Food and Nutrition Education in the context of the Programa Nacional de Alimentação Escolar (PNAE – National School Feeding Program), with ongoing training for school cooks, nutritionists, teachers and families, as well as projects that bring students closer to food and school meals. Porto Alegre (RS), in turn, shared how EAN works within the Sistema Único de Assistência Social (SUAS – Unified Social Assistance System), through the AlimentAÇÃO project, which holds training sessions with users of the social assistance network, strengthening food autonomy and access to adequate and healthy food.

Throughout each edition, LUPPA is structured in different complementary stages: a training program, made up of ten online seminars and workshops held throughout the year, which delve into strategic themes for strengthening public food policies in the participating cities; LUPPA Lab, the in-person stage of immersion and exchange between municipalities; and LUPPA Web, an online event streamed live on Instituto Comida do Amanhã’s YouTube channel, which marks the close of the edition and presents the initiative’s next steps. This structure seeks to broaden understanding of food systems and strengthen institutional capacities to transform food in cities.