At LUPPA, we believe that for cities to build fair and sustainable food systems for everyone, it is necessary to involve civil society and the widest range of sectors of municipal government. For us, this is a special week, as two LUPPA participating cities are holding food security conferences.
The city of Anchieta, located in western Santa Catarina, held its 1st Municipal Food Security Conference on 05/31, with the theme: Food and Nutrition Security – Challenges and Possibilities. The Conference is part of the 2nd Municipal Agroecology Week, which will take place from 05/31 to 06/29 in the Municipality of Anchieta and will include talks, study visits by municipal schools to organic farmers and special rural spaces, and the launch of the Anchieta Ecológica/selective waste collection project.
Meanwhile, the city of Niterói, in the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area, is mobilized in defense of Food and Nutrition Security. On June 3 and 4, the 5th Municipal Food and Nutrition Security Conference will take place. The theme of the conference is “Sustainable food with job and income generation: from production to the table, fighting hunger and waste”. The meeting seeks to discuss food and nutrition security in the municipality in dialogue with the challenges related to production, sustainability, and job and income generation as mechanisms to fight hunger.
According to Igor Barcellos, Undersecretary of Food and Nutrition Security of Niterói and representative of the City of Niterói at LUPPA, “at a time when we are experiencing rising rates of food insecurity in our country, it is essential to establish guidelines and build a plan to tackle this scenario. Dialogue between government and civil society is indispensable for building public policies that are responsible and in tune with the real demands of the population”.
Juliana Tângari, LUPPA coordinator, will take part in the Conference’s opening panel.
At LUPPA, we are committed to continually increasing the number of Brazilian cities that develop strategic, multi-year food policies.