FAO hosts events to commemorate World Food Day

In com­mem­o­ra­tion of World Food Day, the Food and Agri­cul­ture Or­ga­ni­za­tion of the Unit­ed Na­tions (FAO) in Trinidad and To­ba­go host­ed a se­ries of ac­tiv­i­ties geared to­wards ed­u­ca­tion of the pub­lic on var­i­ous is­sues and ca­pac­i­ty build­ing. The FAO aims to re­vamp the agri­food sys­tems in Trinidad and To­ba­go, with a fo­cus on in­clu­siv­i­ty, re­silience and sus­tain­abil­i­ty through in­no­va­tion and tech­nol­o­gy. At the end of all ac­tiv­i­ties, a prize-giv­ing cer­e­mo­ny was done for the Art and Es­say Com­pe­ti­tion for school-aged chil­dren across the coun­try. De­tails fol­low in this press re­lease…

To mark this year’s World Food Day, the Food and Agri­cul­ture Or­ga­ni­za­tion of the Unit­ed Na­tion’s (FAO) rep­re­sen­ta­tion in Trinidad and To­ba­go host­ed a range of ac­tiv­i­ties to build pub­lic ed­u­ca­tion and aware­ness of is­sues di­rect­ly aligned to the or­ga­ni­za­tion’s cor­po­rate man­date by show­cas­ing its past and present ini­tia­tives. This in­clud­ed work on spe­cif­ic mea­sures such as time­ly and well-tar­get­ed so­cial pro­tec­tion poli­cies and pro­grammes to sup­port vul­ner­a­ble groups. Par­tic­u­lar­ly, high­light­ing the role of women and youth in agri­food sys­tems, pro­mot­ing healthy di­ets and erad­i­cat­ing hunger is­sues by 2030.

Every year, World Food Day is cel­e­brat­ed on the 16 Oc­to­ber which marks the date that the Food and Agri­cul­ture Or­ga­ni­za­tion of the Unit­ed Na­tions (FAO) was found­ed in 1945. It was first com­mem­o­rat­ed by the FAO in 1979. This year’s theme is: Leave no one be­hind – Bet­ter pro­duc­tion, Bet­ter nu­tri­tion, a Bet­ter en­vi­ron­ment, and a Bet­ter life (i.e. the four bet­ters) is em­bod­ied in FAO’s ini­tia­tives lo­cal­ly and across the world.

FAO cur­rent­ly pro­vides tech­ni­cal as­sis­tance to the gov­ern­ment and oth­er stake­hold­ers in Trinidad and To­ba­go to trans­form the agri­food sys­tem and make it more in­clu­sive, re­silient and sus­tain­able through in­no­va­tion and tech­nol­o­gy. There­by, tru­ly en­sur­ing that no cit­i­zen is left be­hind. This strate­gic ap­proach is aligned to sev­er­al tech­ni­cal and ca­pac­i­ty-build­ing projects in Trinidad and To­ba­go as we make strides to the over­all goal of meet­ing SDG2, Ze­ro Hunger. This is a mis­sion that goes be­yond any one agency and knows no bor­ders.

Mr. Reuben Robert­son, FAO Rep­re­sen­ta­tive for Trinidad and To­ba­go and Suri­name com­ment­ed that, “this is an is­sue that goes be­yond any one agency and knows no bor­ders. Gov­ern­ments, the pri­vate sec­tor, acad­e­mia, civ­il so­ci­eties and in­di­vid­u­als need to work to­geth­er as a col­lec­tive to meet Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment Goal 2 – Ze­ro Hunger”. Thus, the events were host­ed in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Co­op­er­a­tion for Cli­mate Change Adap­tion and Re­silience in the Caribbean un­der Mex­i­co-CARI­COM-FAO Ini­tia­tive, Glob­al En­vi­ron­ment Fa­cil­i­ty (GEF) project ti­tled “BIORE­ACH: Bio­di­ver­si­ty Con­ser­va­tion and Agroe­co­log­i­cal Land Restora­tion in Pro­duc­tive Land­scapes of Trinidad and To­ba­go etc.

To kick off the events on 14 Oc­to­ber 2022, pri­vate and pub­lic schools were in­vit­ed to a whole day open day at FAO’s head of­fice at #2 Ser­pen­tine Road, St. Clair, Trinidad and To­ba­go show­cas­ing the work be­ing de­vel­oped un­der its ini­tia­tives such as cli­mate smart hy­dro­pon­ic sys­tems and so­lar pow­ered aquapon­ic sys­tems. A Seedling Plant­i­ng Cer­e­mo­ny was al­so host­ed at the Barataria Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre, where FAO is es­tab­lish­ing a gar­den as a teach­ing tool for nu­tri­tion ed­u­ca­tion with rep­re­sen­ta­tives of col­lab­o­ra­tors present such as the chil­dren of the Cen­tre’s 4-H Club, Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture, Land and Fish­eries and Mex­i­can Em­bassy in Trinidad and To­ba­go. To close off the ac­tiv­i­ties, a prize giv­ing cer­e­mo­ny was held for the rep­re­sen­ta­tion’s Art and Es­say Com­pe­ti­tion for school aged chil­dren na­tion­wide.

Winners of the Art and Essay Competition for school-aged children