Uganda Vegan Society Introduces Vegan School Lunch campaign to fight malnutrition

The vegan society in Uganda has kicked off a nation-wide program in Ugandan schools aimed at introducing plant-based meals as an alternative to fighting malnutrition in children.

Vegan experts believe Veganism has the potential to improve malnutrition by promoting a varied plant-based diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and nuts, which can provide essential nutrients, combat deficiencies, and contribute to overall health and well-being.

A report by UNICEF in Uganda shows that, “Between 2013 and 2015, it is estimated that more than 500,000 young Ugandan children died. Of these deaths, nearly half were associated with undernutrition. Undernutrition is responsible for four in 10 deaths of children under five in Uganda”

Seasoned health and nutritionist expert Dr. Paul Kasesnene recently noted that there’s a worrying trend of children of children developing ulcers that could be related to poor diet.

“There is a worrying trend of more and more children developing ulcers. We know that H. Pylori bacteria, stress and a poor diet high in refined foods are linked.” He noted

It is on this note that the Vegan Society in Uganda has introduced a campaign dubbed the Vegan School Lunch to help send out the message of balanced dietary to students as well as students who will eventually take the same message back into their homes.

Teachers and students got involved in prepaing the meals

The team visited Kazo Junior School located in Kawempe as the first beneficiary of this vegan lunch program.

While here, the team expertly passed on the information on Vegan advocacy with focus on animals and their rights, nutrition and health living as well as environmental actions.

The vegan team led by expert chefs also involved and prepared vegan dishes which they served to students to taste the delicacies of vegan meals, these included; pumpkin soup, tofu, vegetable rice and coconut beans.

Nabaasa Innocent - Founder Uganda Vegan Society and Africa Regional Coordinator teaching students and teachers about veganism

The team lead of Uganda Vegan Society, Nabaasa Innocent notes that it's saddening to see kids struggling with diseases like ulcers yet they can easily be prevented with feeding children plant-based meals.

"It's really sad to find young children struggling with diseases like ulcers, cancers mainly because of the foods they eat and poor food balancing habits. We hope that students will learn the benefits of veganism and demand or take action to see that their meals are improved, thus diet improvement and less malnutrition" Nabaasa noted.

She adds that they hope to help out schools to come up with school gardens where they can grow healthy foods to supplement on the students lunch.

“We hope to support schools in coming up with backyard gardens for those with small plots and gardens for those with large portions of free land to grow foods like sukuma wiiki (spinach), onions, tomatoes, lettuce, cabbages, peas, Kale and fruit trees to supplement on the school lunch meals which will ensure continued supply of healthy foods and also for study purposes.”

Nabaasa believes that once students receive the message of healthy living and veganism, they will act as a medium of communication when they take the message back to their parents and will ensure sustainability of the program in the long run.

“The Uganda Vegan Society hopes to reach at least 20 schools in Kampala and Wakiso in this year.” Nabaasa said.

Micheal Sekamanya the head teacher of Kazo Junior says that the school administration now plans to put what they were taught by the vegan team into action so as to improve on the nutrition of students, including adding vegan dishes on the school lunch menu as well as starting a backyard garden and a school vegan club

“The team taught us a lot about veganism and we now plan to add dishes onto the school lunch meals, we hope to also start a backyard garden to grow these first growing vegetables with the help of the vegan team and school vegan club that we are going to launch soon.” Sekamanya noted.

The students and teachers who indulged in vegan dishes that were prepared were in awe of the delicacies and vowed to prepare different dishes at home as they were taught.