Rio City Hall organizes online seminar on healthy eating during the pandemic

The City of Rio de Janeiro, together with the city of Belo Horizonte (MG), organized the online seminar “Food Security in times of Covid-19: best regional practices related to the principles of the Milan Pact on Urban Food Policy”. The event, held on Tuesday, October 27, was part of the Pact's official agenda of regional events adapted to the current times of the new coronavirus pandemic. It featured presentations from the Latin American cities of Buenos Aires (Argentina), Lima (Peru) and Medellín (Colombia) and also from the Local Governments for Sustainability network (ICLEI), with the participation of other cities in the region that are signatories to the Pact.

The objective of the meeting was to present the main programs and best practices of Latin American cities related to healthy, sustainable and inclusive food and food security, developed or adapted to the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. The meeting also sought to understand the challenges imposed by the crisis on food production, distribution and consumption in cities, especially for groups in vulnerable situations.

At the event, the City of Rio presented the adaptations made to its urban food projects to mitigate the effects of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Among them, the urban agroecology program Hortas Cariocas was mentioned, which allocated all food production and harvesting to the communities where the gardens are located and implemented fish production technology (tilapia aquaponics). With the same objective, the opening hours of the Popular Restaurants were extended, now open on weekends and offering three meals a day. In addition, the restaurants now offer the option of take-out for consumption outside the establishment (hot meals) for users who are part of risk groups or have travel restrictions, for the same price charged for lunch and dinner on site.

Since 2015, Rio de Janeiro has been a signatory to the Milan Pact, a commitment made by 170 cities from all continents to govern urban food policies. In 2019, the city hosted the group's XNUMXst Latin American Meeting and received an honorable mention in the Food Production category (Urban Food Systems) during a meeting in Montpellier, France.

The activities of the Milan Pact strengthen the commitment of the City of Rio to guarantee food security to citizens, offering healthy and affordable food, based on principles of human rights and environmental sustainability.

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November 4th, 2020