On Wednesday (11/25), at 10 a.m., the Laboratório Urbano de Políticas Públicas Alimentares (LUPPA – Urban Laboratory of Public Food Policies) held the closing workshop of its 4th edition, bringing together representatives from seven participating municipalities for a final meeting of exchange and celebration. Teams from Arame (MA), Benevides (PA), Francisco Morato (SP), Marituba (PA), Santa Luzia(MG), Santiago (RS) and Mãe do Rio (PA) took part — all committed to strengthening fairer, more integrated and sustainable food policies in their territories.

During the meeting, representatives from each city presented their anchor projects, highlighting important achievements, the challenges they faced and the teams’ ongoing commitment to implementing innovative solutions to guarantee the human right to food in their respective territories.

The teams’ remarks highlighted the importance of qualified listening, exchange between municipalities, political will and local coordination to move forward with effective food policies: “The LUPPA anchor project helped us plan better, reflect on previous mistakes and evaluate better strategies and ways to make our community garden succeed, right from the start,” emphasized Hoana, from the municipality of Santiago.

LUPPA’s training cycle continues in the coming weeks. The December seminar will be held on 12/03, on the theme “Practical experience in implementing the Programa Nacional de Alimentação Escolar (PNAE – National School Feeding Program) in municipalities in Pará: challenges and lessons learned”.

Then, on 12/10, at 2 p.m., LUPPA WEB will take place, when the ten new cities joining the program’s next edition will be announced.

About LUPPA

LUPPA is a collaborative platform and an ongoing learning program to support and enable cities to promote food policies with a systemic approach, in an intersectoral, coherent and participatory way. Conceived by Instituto Comida do Amanhã and co-implemented with ICLEI Brasil, it receives full support from Instituto Ibirapitanga, ICS – Instituto Clima e Sociedade, ITAÚSA, Instituto Infinis and Porticus, as well as institutional support from FAO Brasil – the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and methodological partnership from Reos Partners Brasil.

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• Take part in a national lab of cities engaged with the agenda of sustainable and accessible food systems, with the possibility of international visibility for their good practices;
• Take part in an immersive gathering, LUPPA LAB, which will bring together representatives of cities from all regions of the country;
• Access content on the various aspects of local food systems;
• Exchange experiences, information and tools with other cities;
• Take part in seminars, training sessions and an inter-municipal mutual support network;
• Take part in a specific selection process to receive technical cooperation from mentor cities;
• And more: benefit from solid support to develop or improve their Municipal Public Policy on Food and Nutrition Security

Step-by-step guide to applying:

1. Read the call for applications with all the information relevant to the process;
2. Fill out the application form;
3. Attach the letter of commitment to the form, following the template available in the call for applications;

Cities that took part in LUPPA in previous editions are invited to renew their commitment and continue improving their Municipal Public Policy on Food and Nutrition Security. Step-by-step guide to renewing your commitment:

1. Read the call for applications with all the information relevant to the process;
2. Fill out the renewal form;
3. Attach the letter of commitment to the form, following the template available in the call for applications;

Cities that took part in LUPPA in previous editions are invited to renew their commitment and continue improving their Municipal Public Policy on Food and Nutrition Security. About LUPPA LUPPA is a collaborative platform and an ongoing learning program to support and enable cities to promote food policies with a systemic approach, in an intersectoral, coherent and participatory way. Conceived by Instituto Comida do Amanhã and co-organized with ICLEI Brasil, it receives full support from Instituto Ibirapitanga, ICS – Instituto Clima e Sociedade, ITAÚSA, Fundação José Luiz Egydio Setúbal and Porticus, as well as institutional support from FAO Brazil – Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and methodological partnership from Reos Partners Brasil.

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The Laboratório Urbano de Políticas Públicas Alimentares (LUPPA – Urban Food Public Policy Lab) — a pioneering program that supports Brazilian cities in building fairer, healthier and more sustainable food systems — is now open for applications. Run by Instituto Comida do Amanhã and co-organized with ICLEI Brasil, the program combines technical capacity building, city-to-city mentoring, exchange of good practices and the production of content tailored to the diverse municipal realities of Brazil.

Since its creation in 2021, LUPPA has established itself as the largest community of cities in the world dedicated to this topic, currently bringing together 54 municipalities from 18 states, plus 5 mentor cities, which together represent millions of inhabitants.

LUPPA’s work has been widely recognized internationally, both for its innovative methodology and for its ability to build a support network among Brazilian cities. The program is cited as an example of an urban food public policy lab with an impact on transforming food systems in benchmark reports such as “The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2023” (FAO, UNICEF, IFAD, WFP) and “From Plate to Planet” (IPES FOOD, 2023). In 2024, it was highlighted as a national network of cities by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition of the UN Committee on World Food Security, and more recently. In 2025, it was recognized as a reference experience in urban food policy with an integrated approach in the FAO report “Transforming Food and Agriculture through a Systems Approach,” a document that illustrates the relevance of adopting systemic perspectives to tackle contemporary food challenges.

”When LUPPA was launched, our goals were, first, to get five interested cities – we got 23. Second, we wanted to reach three editions – we are now wrapping up the 4th. Third, to influence the national food agenda for cities – we not only managed to ensure that the issue became established in Brazil, but today we are working on building a global agenda for food systems and cities. Starting LUPPA’s 5th edition is not about growing; it is about raising the quality of what we do and expanding our capacity for impact,” says Juliana Tângari, director of Comida do Amanhã.

The selection values territorial diversity, seeking to include cities from all Brazilian biomes; therefore, for this edition of LUPPA, up to 10 cities will be selected, with 40% of the spots reserved for municipalities in the Legal Amazon.

In addition, in 2024, the program held LUPPA LAB in the Amazon for the first time, in the city of Barcarena (PA), bringing together more than 120 municipal officials and highlighting the development of a joint climate agenda for COP30, which will be hosted in Belém. This experience reinforced LUPPA’s role as a space for innovation and coordination among different sectors, strengthening the food and nutrition security agenda at the local and global scale.

“These moments of exchange that take place during all of LUPPA’s activities and also at LUPPA LAB are motivating and inspiring, because they encourage us to put into practice policies and actions that support food and nutrition security and the promotion of urban agriculture and agroecology,” emphasizes Elinia Marsango, representative of the city of Itajaí (SC).

For Rodrigo Perpétuo, Executive Secretary of ICLEI América do Sul, this new edition “reinforces the commitment to supporting municipalities, especially in the Legal Amazon, so that they transform their food systems in a fair way that is integrated with global agendas, such as COP30.” He adds: “LUPPA has been a catalyst for Brazilian cities to advance innovative food policies, connecting food security, sustainable development and climate action.”

Applications are open until October 20. For more details on the selection process, see the full call for applications at: bit.ly/EditalLUPPA5.

About LUPPA

LUPPA is a collaborative platform and an ongoing learning program to support and enable cities to promote food policies with a systemic approach, in an intersectoral, coherent and participatory way. Conceived by Instituto Comida do Amanhã and co-organized with ICLEI Brasil, it receives full support from Instituto Ibirapitanga, ICS – Instituto Clima e Sociedade, ITAÚSA, Fundação José Luiz Egydio Setúbal and Porticus, as well as institutional support from FAO Brazil – Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and methodological partnership from Reos Partners Brasil.

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1. Apply systems thinking;
2. Build systemic knowledge;
3. Enable systemic governance;
4. Integrate actions through systemic practice;
5. Ensure systemic investments;
6. Promote systemic learning.

The report highlights LUPPA as a reference for the 6th element, recognizing that the program adopts co-learning as its core methodology to drive the development of integrated food policies in participating cities. Run by Instituto Comida do Amanhã in partnership with ICLEI América do Sul, the program works with a network of Brazilian cities, supporting the design and strengthening of public policies that connect food, health, the environment, culture and social justice. Juliana Tângari, director of Comida do Amanhã and coordinator of LUPPA, emphasizes that the program’s recognition in the new report highlights the value of transformation initiatives in food policy in Latin America. “Increasingly, both FAO’s food systems division and the SOFI report itself have been valuing policies that adopt systems approaches, and LUPPA delivers exactly that. Our work is to accelerate and leverage the transformation of food systems from the local scale, connecting actors, territories and public policies that operate in an integrated, long-term way.” As part of the publication’s launch, FAO is also holding two online events, on September 12 and 15, at 6 a.m. and 10 a.m., respectively, to present and discuss the report’s key points. The sessions will be free and open to the public upon completing the forms: Registration for September 12 Registration for September 15

SOFI Report

The launch of the document also anticipates a broader movement within FAO itself: on July 28, the new edition of The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2025 (SOFI) will be released, an annual publication that brings together the most up-to-date global data on food and nutrition security. In recent years, SOFI has reinforced recommendations that value public policies with a systems approach, capable of integrating multiple sectors and generating longer-lasting impacts. In this sense, initiatives such as LUPPA align directly with these guidelines and demonstrate, in practice, how urban policies can contribute to transforming food systems in a structural, coordinated and continuous way. In 2023, SOFI pointed to Brazil, through LUPPA, as an example to be followed as a “food labs” model for achieving SDG 2 – Zero Hunger and Sustainable Agriculture.

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During LUPPA LAB #4, held from May 19 to 23, 2025, in Barcarena, the mentor cities and mentee cities that will work together over the coming months were defined. See the pairings below:

Belo Horizonte with:

Abaetetuba (PA)
Mãe do Rio (PA)
Porto Alegre (RS)
Santa Luzia (MG)

Curitiba with:

Benevides (PA)
Bragança (PA)
Itajaí (SC)
Santiago (RS)

Osasco with:

Caucaia (CE)
Caruaru (PE)
Francisco Morato (SP)
Santarém (PA)

Recife with:

Alenquer (PA)
Alto Paraíso de Goiás (GO)
Petrolina (PE)
Tefé (AM)

São Paulo with:

Arame (MA)
Contagem (MG)
Marituba (PA)
Porto Velho (RO)

The mentoring methodology aims to build a learning space among municipal officials and other actors in urban food systems, taking into account the specific characteristics of each territory. Activities take place over four virtual workshops, each lasting about two hours. The first meeting serves as an introduction and alignment session and already took place on the last day of LUPPA LAB 4 in Barcarena; the following ones are dedicated to exchanging experiences, technical cooperation and jointly building solutions.

Mentoring provides a space for qualified technical cooperation, where the exchange between mentor and mentee cities takes place in a close and continuous way. By sharing both consolidated lessons learned and the challenges faced in practice, officials have the opportunity to build solutions together, strengthening their capacities and adapting strategies to local realities. It is a process of mutual learning, based on listening, experience and trust.

About LUPPA

LUPPA is a collaborative platform and an ongoing learning program to support and enable cities to promote food policies with a systemic approach, in an intersectoral, coherent and participatory way. Conceived by Instituto Comida do Amanhã and co-organized with ICLEI Brasil, it receives full support from Instituto Ibirapitanga, ICS – Instituto Clima e Sociedade, ITAÚSA, Fundação José Luiz Egydio Setúbal and Porticus, as well as institutional support from FAO Brazil – Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and methodological partnership from Reos Partners Brasil.

O post Mentoring for LUPPA’s 4th edition has begun: see how the cities are organized apareceu primeiro em LUPPA.

O post Barcarena becomes a LUPPA mentor city to support other cities in promoting food public policies apareceu primeiro em LUPPA.

Representatives of 38 Brazilian cities gathered from May 19 to 23 in Barcarena (PA) to take part in LUPPA LAB, the in-person gathering of the LUPPA program – Laboratório Urbano de Políticas Públicas Alimentares (Urban Food Public Policy Lab), considered the largest food public policy lab in the world. During the event, contributions were gathered from municipal officials and members of civil society to build a joint position for the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30), scheduled for November in Belém (PA). The initiative reinforces the strategic role of municipalities in transforming food systems as a response to the climate crisis.

LUPPA LAB is the in-person stage of LUPPA, a program that brings together a network of cities committed to promoting intersectoral, sustainable and participatory food policies. Run by Instituto Comida do Amanhã and ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, the program promotes training, exchanges and cooperation among public officials to strengthen the urban food agenda in Brazil.

During the five days of LUPPA LAB, municipal representatives took part in workshops, activities and thematic panels covering topics ranging from intersectoral governance of food policies to funding challenges, public procurement from family farming, valuing the food culture of Indigenous and quilombola peoples, and the use of social currencies as a tool to combat food insecurity. Holding the event in the same region where COP30 will take place gives the representatives’ position even greater political and symbolic relevance, especially in light of the global challenges related to climate change and building sustainable food systems.

“This year, we decided to do this work directly with the cities present here, experiencing the territory firsthand, feeling the forest’s pulse and the whole atmosphere surrounding this moment. Our expectation is that food systems will gain more and more space in climate discussions, especially in Brazil. It is not possible to talk about climate without considering food. We need healthier, more sustainable, fairer and socio-biodiverse food systems. Our very existence depends on biodiversity,” highlights the director of Instituto Comida do Amanhã, Francine Xavier. Since COP28, LUPPA has been developing joint positions on food systems.

This year’s LUPPA position will also be included in a chapter of ICLEI’s Mayors’ Letter, a global document that expresses governments’ priorities in international climate negotiations.

Municipalities as drivers of change

The position to be taken to COP30 brings together proposals based on the contributions of the cities participating in LUPPA LAB, gathered throughout the event through a structured listening process. Among the main guidelines are promoting urban and peri-urban agroecology as a strategy for climate change mitigation and adaptation; promoting food security and sovereignty, with expanded funding for climate adaptation actions; and fair financing for family farmers, making it easier for the population to access healthy and sustainable diets. Another central point is preserving standing forests, recognizing that biodiversity, culture and natural resources are fundamental elements for ensuring food security, climate justice and the well-being of local populations.

“We need to think about maintaining food systems as a mechanism for sustaining life itself. Without viable food systems, we cannot sustain the human species,” said Hugo Salomão, senior fellow at ICLEI, who represents subnational governments at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). According to Hugo Salomão França, the results of LUPPA LAB should become part of a global mobilization coordinated by ICLEI, with a special focus on the Brazilian government, which holds the COP30 presidency, as well as on international bodies. The goal is to ensure that municipalities’ interests are taken into account in the global climate debate.

Global relevance

LUPPA currently comprises 60 municipalities in 18 Brazilian states, directly reaching more than 14 million inhabitants. Since 2021, 597 public officials have taken part in the program’s activities. The initiative has been recognized in international publications such as the SOFI 2023 report (FAO, UNICEF, IFAD and WFP), the From Plate to Planet document (IPES-Food) and, in 2024, as an example of an innovative network in the report of the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE-FSN).

“At LUPPA, we pursue a participatory methodology, with exchanges of experiences between cities and a platform that strengthens the building of food public policies rooted in local territories and with civil society participation. We know that many challenges recur, but each reality requires specific adaptations. At the same time, one city can inspire another — even if it does not adopt the same policy, it can take ownership of the solution found and adapt it to its own context,” concludes Francine Xavier.

About LUPPA

LUPPA is a collaborative platform and an ongoing learning program to support and enable cities to promote food policies with a systemic approach, in an intersectoral, coherent and participatory way. Conceived by Instituto Comida do Amanhã and co-organized with ICLEI Brasil, it receives full support from Instituto Ibirapitanga, ICS – Instituto Clima e Sociedade, ITAÚSA, Fundação José Luiz Egydio Setúbal and Porticus, as well as institutional support from FAO Brazil – Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and methodological partnership from Reos Partners Brasil.

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From May 19 to 23, the city of Barcarena, in Pará, hosts the fourth edition of LUPPA LAB, the in-person gathering of the LUPPA program, considered the largest food public policy lab in the world. Organized by Instituto Comida do Amanhã and co-organized with ICLEI Brasil, LUPPA is a capacity-building program and a community of cities that holds an in-person gathering every year, LUPPA LAB, which in this fourth edition is co-organized with the City of Barcarena, with support from Gás Pará and Hydro. The initiative brings together representatives from more than 40 Brazilian municipalities for an immersion in building more sustainable, healthy and fair urban food systems. With around 120 municipal officials confirmed, the opening will be held at Barcarena’s Complexo Comercial (Commercial Complex), and the remaining sessions will take place at Escola Checralla Sallim Khayat.

Unlike a traditional conference, LUPPA LAB is an in-person event held in a laboratory format, offering a hands-on, collaborative journey. The program includes workshops, mentoring, collaborative activities, experience sharing, and field visits to local Food and Nutrition Security (FNS) initiatives in the municipality of Barcarena. All activities focus on strengthening municipal action on integrated and coherent food policies and on developing robust, intersectoral plans. In this edition, the lab also highlights the climate agenda, with the development of a joint position of the participating cities for COP30, which will be held in neighboring Belém, the capital of Pará.

LUPPA LAB follows a methodology that is different from all the other events and meetings that public officials and representatives of public policy councils are used to attending. Every year our network grows stronger, people take ownership of themes and opportunities for action they had not previously envisioned, and little by little we are weaving and reinforcing an enormous support community for different areas of municipal public administration connected to the food agenda,” says Juliana Tângari, director of Instituto Comida do Amanhã and general coordinator of LUPPA.
Since its creation in 2021, LUPPA has held three editions of the LAB — the first virtual, followed by in-person gatherings in São Paulo (SP) and Curitiba (PR) — and currently connects 54 cities in 18 states across all five regions of the country, in addition to the 5 mentor cities that partner with the program.

First time in the Amazon

This edition marks LUPPA’s progress across the country, prioritizing cities with consolidated food policies that can inspire other places. Held in the Amazon for the first time, the gathering focuses on Barcarena, a LUPPA city since 2023, recognized for its innovative practices in the field. The choice of Barcarena reflects its prominence in initiatives such as the Programa Municipal de Aquisição de Alimentos (PMAA – Municipal Food Acquisition Program), which connects family farming to the supply of food for hospitals and for families in vulnerable situations, and the Sistema Municipal de Monitoramento da Agricultura Familiar (SISMMAF – Municipal Family Farming Monitoring System), which ensures technical assistance and ongoing support for local production.

For the mayor of Barcarena, Renato Ogawa, hosting LUPPA LAB in the city is recognition of the collective work carried out to guarantee the right to dignified and healthy food. “Here, we treat food security as a strategic priority that connects family farming, economic development, the environment and social justice. I am certain that the exchange of experiences and the collaborative building that LUPPA promotes will further strengthen our public policies and inspire new solutions for all of Brazil,” he says.

LUPPA

LUPPA is a collaborative platform and an ongoing learning program to support and enable cities to promote food policies with a systemic approach, in an intersectoral, coherent and participatory way. Conceived by Instituto Comida do Amanhã and co-organized with ICLEI Brasil, it receives full support from Instituto Ibirapitanga, ICS – Instituto Clima e Sociedade, ITAÚSA, Fundação José Luiz Egydio Setúbal and Porticus, as well as institutional support from FAO Brazil – Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and methodological partnership from Reos Partners Brasil.

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The selection criteria require proven progress on at least 70% of 36 targets developed by Ação da Cidadania in partnership with Instituto Comida do Amanhã. These targets are organized into three main pillars: strengthening the National Food and Nutrition Security System (SISAN); implementing public policies and food and nutrition security (FNS) facilities; and transparency and social participation.

Among the criteria met by the cities are guaranteeing a dedicated municipal budget to increase funding for the Programa Nacional de Alimentação Escolar (PNAE – National School Feeding Program), creating a Municipal Emergency Fund to fight hunger, implementing low-cost public restaurants and community kitchens, and increasing the supply of food from family farming to these FNS facilities.

Curitiba and Belo Horizonte are also among LUPPA’s mentor cities, alongside Osasco, São Paulo and Recife. The program’s mentoring methodology seeks to build a learning space among municipal officials, with workshops offered by cities that have more experience in food security planning to the other municipalities participating in LUPPA.

About LUPPA:

LUPPA is a program of Instituto Comida do Amanhã, carried out in partnership with ICLEI Brasil. It receives full support from Instituto Ibirapitanga, ICS – Instituto Clima e Sociedade, ITAÚSA, Fundação José Luiz Egydio Setúbal and Porticus, as well as institutional support from FAO Brazil – Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and methodological partnership from Reos Partners Brasil.

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