Questions/Answers

The Municipal Food Security and Nutrition Policy (SAN) of Belo Horizonte was created on July 15, 1993 to fight hunger in the municipality. Over 26 years, the SAN Policy has been consolidated by incorporating the search for the human right to adequate and healthy food and food sovereignty. This was only possible with a broad dialogue that covers everything from agro-ecological production, to training, income generation, fighting food waste, assistance to vulnerable groups, and conscious consumption. Belo Horizonte is a pioneer in public initiatives to fight hunger and provide access to healthy food. It was the first Brazilian city to inaugurate a Popular Restaurant, which to this day serves balanced, high-quality meals at a low cost. Subsequently, the example of Belo Horizonte was replicated in all of Brazil. The initiative aims to unify the supply policies of the Belo Horizonte City Hall and create innovative programs to fight hunger and malnutrition in the city. A survey conducted in all municipal health centers, on the same day as the child vaccination campaign, pointed out a serious picture of malnutrition, especially in children up to five years old. The right to food has always been inserted in a context of citizenship enforcement, and it is the duty of the public sector to guarantee food security and work to extend the condition of food citizenship to the largest possible portion of the population. This has required direct actions by the public sector in order to guarantee food security for the low-income population. Recognizing this right as a basic requirement for the promotion and protection of citizenship, the Municipal Adjunct Secretariat for Food Security and Nutrition adopts policies that combine actions and programs aimed at guaranteeing regular and permanent access to quality food to the vulnerable population, based on food practices that promote health.

The initiative is part of a set of complementary actions that are developed by bringing together partners from different sectors of government, among which are sectors specialized in the 2030 Agenda, facilitating and strengthening the government's ability to engage public policies to more effective measures in the fight against hunger. Belo Horizonte City Hall works to ensure price stability, accessibility, sustainability, and quality of food, in line with the guidelines of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) as well as the recommendations of the Milan Pact, of which Belo Horizonte is a signatory.

The initiative is based on the agenda set forth in SDG 2, Zero Hunger and Sustainable Agriculture, focusing on access, quality, appreciation of proper nutritional habits and their relation to the citizen's quality of life. Its implementation is based on actions integrated to the formulation of public policies, with the objective of ensuring food security and working to extend the condition of food citizenship to the largest possible portion of the population. Direct actions such as the distribution of basic food baskets to the vulnerable population; distribution of enriched flour to nursing mothers, pregnant women, children, and the elderly; school lunches distributed to the municipal public network; and the maintenance of a popular restaurant selling meals at cost price, were integrated into public policies that guarantee regular and permanent access to quality food at stable prices and the right to food and nutritional assistance to the socially vulnerable population. This concept highlighted the many dimensions related to the production, access and consumption of food, taking into account factors that influence the availability and quality of food, pointing out the relationship of the Food and Nutrition Security policy with the realization of the Human Right to Adequate Food (DHAA).

Belo Horizonte performs a creative and responsible management of Sustainability, integrating good practices so that they can transform the vulnerable population most affected by hunger into a more resilient group by having access to regular and permanent assistance. In this way, the government combats a major factor of social inequality and creates an inclusive space in the city's economic and social development.

In Belo Horizonte, the Municipal Food Supply Policy originated in discussions about hunger around 1992, when the Movement for Ethics in Politics acted strongly in raising awareness among the Brazilian population. The following year, in January 1993, a commission of studies was created to prepare the proposal for the creation of the Municipal Secretary of Supply (SMAB), which determined focus and greater work in the formulation of public policies aimed at fighting hunger in the city. In this context, SMAB was created in 1993, with the objective of unifying the supply policies of the Belo Horizonte City Hall, and creating innovative programs to fight hunger and malnutrition in the municipality. Thus, the creation of this portfolio made clear the priority given to supply by the municipal executive power, looking at it from the perspective of Food and Nutrition Security (SAN). This issue gained great visibility in the country during the mobilization of civil society in the campaign "Citizenship Action Against Hunger, Misery and for Life", conceived and founded by the sociologist Herbert de Souza.

The COVID-19 pandemic deepened the already existing inequalities and insecurities and brought even more complex contours to the reality of Belo Horizonte, among them, hunger, aggravated among children and women, especially single mothers. In this context, the initiative acts directly in the adequate feeding of children in schools, which is extended by the Integrated School Program. Thus, single mothers have government support in family management, enabling their insertion in the city's socioeconomic scenario, impacting on a better administration of their income and improving health conditions through the food security guaranteed by the initiative.

The initiative's projects and actions rely on different actions to offer specialized assistance to different groups in vulnerable situations regarding food security. The creation of SMAB (today SMASAN) represented the main step towards strengthening initiatives at the local level, valuing the links between supply, production and consumption. SMASAN adopts the following work cores: 1) Food and nutrition assistance; 2) Subsidized food commercialization; 3) Supply and regulation of the food market; 4) Promotion of urban agriculture; 5) Mobilization and education for food consumption; 6) Generation of employment and income, including qualification. The Popular Restaurant resulted from these work cores with five units in the city, they offer more than 2.4 million meals per year; The National School Meals Program (PNAE) offers more than 82.5 million meals per year in municipal and public schools; 59 free trade fairs are found in all regional areas of the city; Strengthening Family Agriculture and Urban Agriculture, which redefined the use of public spaces; 145 School Agroecological Systems, also called school gardens; among more activities of equal importance that are improved every year based on their results and perspectives for the future of achieving food security in the city.

The pioneering municipal policy of the initiative was consolidated over 26 years, incorporating the components that advanced from the fight against hunger to the search for the human right to adequate and healthy food, and food sovereignty with a broad dialogue that goes from agro-ecological production, through training and gastronomy, income generation, the fight against food waste, assistance to the vulnerable public reaching conscious consumption. All the work developed is based on health-promoting food practices, with investments in the dialogue between food production and supply, bringing together urban and rural, producer and consumer, and the private sector. The first direct social impact action of the initiative was in 1997, through the Public Management and Citizenship Program, recognition granted by the Getúlio Vargas Foundation, which was repeated two years later, in 1999. The distinction was a great booster for the strengthening of public policy-making in the field of food security, making the initiative grow in the municipal government. In 2001, SMAB changed its name to Municipal Deputy Secretary of Supply (SMPA). In 2005, it became a Municipal Deputy Secretary of Supply (SMAAB), making up the framework of the Secretariat of Social Policies; Under this management, more impactful activities were implemented, for example: 1) Certification of the Sacolões Abastecer, Popular Restaurant, Barreiro Community Garden, Organic Fair and Food Bank in the first cycle of the Maria Regina Nabuco Award, in 2007. 2) Public Policies for Food and Nutritional Security - Future World First Place Award policies, all in 2009; 3) Honorable Mention category Social and Economic Equity (Popular Restaurants) - Milan Pact, in 2018; Among other actions recognized for their social impacts. The Municipality of Belo Horizonte seeks to study every right step so that the promotion of food security is increasingly broad and effective in the city.

Although it is not up to the municipality to interfere in income distribution, which depends on macroeconomic policies conducted by the federal government, Belo Horizonte City Hall works to promote price stability, accessibility, sustainability, and food quality. The biggest obstacles are to conduct these three pillars of the initiative in a permanent and stable manner, so that the target population can continue to be assisted by appropriate policies, without experiencing socioeconomic turbulence that impacts the rights to food security already guaranteed.

Social participation is an important mechanism of the initiative's policy, since it contributes to popularizing knowledge about the population's right to food security, as well as being an important tool for obtaining the demands of the most vulnerable groups in the city. Its operation occurs through an institutional channel from which the government can guarantee the participation and commitment of society as a way to act in the scope of policies, plans, and programs that ensure the fundamental right to food and food and nutritional security. This is the Municipal Council for Food and Nutritional Security (COMUSAN).

Belo Horizonte's Municipal Food Supply Policy originated in discussions about hunger, in 1992, in a scenario where fighting hunger was not a priority agenda throughout Brazil. In this context, few or almost no public policies were elaborated to guarantee food security for Brazilians. As a pioneer, Belo Horizonte became a reference, impacting several cities throughout the country and creating ties with international agendas for Sustainability. Today, after awards and recognition for its policy to fight hunger, Belo Horizonte has become the Brazilian channel for political exchanges with several countries and cities that seek to implement food security in their territories.

Belo Horizonte is a city that is the main hub of connections of the entire Metropolitan Region, from commercial exchanges to contributions in the public sphere. Considering that one of the main activities exercised in the fight against hunger is the production and transportation of food, Belo Horizonte invested in security and agility technologies to serve those who produce and transport food in the Metropolitan Region. Nevertheless, due to the pandemic of COVID-19, the city government has improved food sector agencies to specialize in working remotely, without negatively impacting the fight for food security in the city during the crisis.

Belo Horizonte is the capital of the state of Minas Gerais, however, the dynamics of the city does not work in isolation, since it is connected to an urban complex involving border cities and regions, the Metropolitan Region, which operate under a logic of exchanges in various areas, impacting each other from commercialization to public policies. For the full realization of programs such as the 59 free trade fairs in all regional areas of the city and the strengthening of Family Farming and Urban Agriculture, already implemented by the initiative, alignments and adaptations in inter-municipal relations are necessary. With this strengthened structure, socio-productive inclusion is promoted and facilitated from the circulation of food security policies regionally. In addition, Belo Horizonte plays a guiding role in the operation of the initiative's actions and policies, since it is the Brazilian city with the greatest support in the fight against hunger today, and remains a signatory of the Milan Pact, which enables the replicability of the initiative in other parts of the country, based on the model already in operation in the Metropolitan Region of the city.

The feasibility of the initiative applies to the metropolitan region, besides the possibility of replication in other territories in the country, in Latin America and in cities around the world that face similar challenges in combating social vulnerabilities linked to food insecurity. Its overflow goes through the institutional strengthening of pillar policies such as the promotion of food and nutritional security through mobilization, training, and food education practices, and through the production and commercialization of food in the municipality, primarily in territories with a high degree of social vulnerability. Through this structure, it becomes possible to develop initiatives, consolidated by public policies that go beyond focused actions that work only locally and in isolation. Belo Horizonte City Hall has a vast stock of materials for building the policies that coordinate the fight against hunger in the city, in addition to having teams and agencies specialized in the topic, aligned with the international food security agenda, which promotes the engagement of projects and public policies with other spheres of the public and private sectors to facilitate cooperation and strengthen initiatives in this area.

The initiative is part of a set of actions that are built and developed by bringing together partners from different government sectors, such as health, education, social assistance, urban policy, universities and organized civil society associations. The School Feeding Council (CAE), composed of representatives from civil society, education workers, parents and students, the Municipal Council for Food and Nutritional Security (COMUSAN), working in line with the guidelines of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), have the attributions of monitoring and supervising the fulfillment of the established guidelines.

The project is based on resilient actions for its sustainable development through the socio-productive inclusion of the population in situations of food vulnerability, designed for all ages, which include practices on a scale beyond the municipality, such as vegetable gardens and composting in schools; food distribution that develops good practices in the scope of food waste reduction; employment and income generation, including qualification. This agenda aims to strengthen urban resilience and sustainability for local development, in addition to the economic recovery of communities in the midst of the current food and health crises throughout the country.

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Since 1992, the government of Belo Horizonte has been improving each of its policy-making mechanisms and their practice. To make this possible, periodic monitoring of the results generated by the municipality's Food Security Secretariats is carried out. This evaluation makes it possible to improve public policies to make their impact on society more effective, and also to meet the fiscal and budgetary obligations provided by the city government.

The indicators and tools used to make these assessments are diverse and their main characteristic is the improvement they have undergone (and will continue to undergo) over the years. Therefore, to fully cover all their functionalities and processes, a book entitled "Beginning to End Hunger, Food and the Environment in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and Beyond", written by M. Jahi Chappell, was produced, where the author, in partnership with the municipal government, detailed with numbers and case-studies all the references evaluated from the indicators and analysis.

To produce all the materials and formulate all the public policies, many years of studies, research, academic perspectives, statistical analysis, data collection, creation of secretariats, and synergy between them have been spent. The ebook "Beginning to End Hunger, Food and the Environment in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and Beyond", written by M. Jahi Chappell, is also a reference material to deepen the entire historical process of the initiative, addressing methodologies in each of the projects applied in the city. This book, besides representing a historical landmark for the municipal policy of Belo Horizonte, also contributed to the conclusion that the path to socio-productive inclusion and the fight against hunger is mainly through promoting food and nutritional security through the practices of mobilization, training and food education, food production and marketing in the municipality, with priority given to territories with a high degree of social vulnerability. With this record, it becomes even more viable for the food and nutritional assistance secretariats to focus their attention on the international Sustainability agenda, because with a well-structured and documented policy base, all the starting points for the replication of good practices become possible.

The initiative has the City of Belo Horizonte as the main institution to articulate projects and actions related to food security in the city, with the direct participation of the Municipal Deputy Secretary for Food Security and Nutrition (SMASAN). The other public agencies responsible for the elaboration and implementation of public policies aimed at fighting hunger are Directorate of International Relations, Municipal Secretariat of Economic Development (SMDE), Municipal Council of Food and Nutritional Security (COMUSAN) and School Feeding Council (CAE), composed of representatives of civil society, education workers, parents and students. Its institutional relevance impacts directly in terms of: [a] disseminating and giving visibility to existing initiatives, also at national and international levels; b] inspiring their replication; and, [c] stimulating and guiding policy makers to the relevance of developing local food policies from a multi-stakeholder and multi-sectoral perspective. The creation of SMASAN represented the main step towards strengthening initiatives at the local level, valuing the links of supply with production and consumption; however, the continuation of its work, seeking innovations and greater chances of inclusion and replicability, also means the improvement of the agencies already involved, transforming its institutional performance as indispensable for the city.

Belo Horizonte developed the initiative based on the principles of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) as well as the recommendations of the Milan Pact, both guidelines being aligned with the Agenda 2030 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In this context, the Belo Horizonte City Hall has strengthened its governmental structure with bodies specialized in the agenda to implement actions focused on sustainable development and aligned with global development agendas, but also to ensure that this project is an effective investment of the municipal administration and contributes to the effective promotion of sustainable development at the local level. Thus, there is the reopening, in 2017, of the Popular Cafeteria of the City Hall, expanding access to quality food at popular costs, including for the homeless population; Expansion of points of access to agro-ecological products, produced by family farmers, through the expansion of points of the "Direto da Roça" Fairs; In 2017, 4 productive projects were implemented in the Izidora occupation, including 1 community garden and 3 productive backyards; among other sustainable activities that, in addition to fighting hunger, promote the resilience of the population most affected by food insecurity.

The biggest lesson learned from the history of the implementation of the initiative is that it is always necessary to go further, because food is a right and the development of public policies will never be enough until food security is met throughout the city. With the development observed since its creation in 1993, today Belo Horizonte has a well-founded structure and actions that enable the city to take steps forward in sustainable development based on food security. Belo Horizonte now looks to the future and bets on food re-education, respecting the culture and gastronomic identity of the region. A bet on conscious eating, based on the reduction of meat consumption, brings the look more and more to environmental concerns. Belo Horizonte has created strategies to put into practice the commitment of substituting animal protein in food, but also ensuring the offer of balanced meals. Another innovative initiative is the implantation of Agro-forests in degraded areas and areas of social vulnerability. In the agroforests, native trees and agricultural crops are planted in order to contribute to the food security of local populations through food production.