Hosts for Peace: Gastronomy and Tourism schools for young people in Colombia

Feeding the Colombian cities

Internal migration from rural to urban areas, mainly due to forced displacement and foreign migration, have resulted in around 80% of the Colombian population living in urban areas. This food demand shock exerts additional pressure on access and capacity to acquire sufficient food both in quantity and quality. Hence, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Bogota set the topic “Feeding the Cities” on top of its working agendas. This theme encompasses the issues of food security and agri-food systems, which are currently under increasing pressure due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Furthermore, by addressing these problems, this agenda stresses on the importance of guaranteeing an inclusive growth for small producers who play a crucial role in supplying urban markets and, therefore, in food and nutrition security.

Being a concrete example of the Dutch policy “Towards a world without hunger in 2030”, the “Hosts for Peace” initiative strives for hunger and malnutrition eradication through building employability capacities, increasing (formal) employment opportunities, the sustainable rise of productivity and income for small food producers – achieving ecologically sustainable agri-food systems –, while promoting healthier diets and responsible consumption.

Caribbean Hosts for Peace

Hard-hit by the armed conflict, the Magdalena region suffers from one the highest (extreme) poverty, unemployment and food and nutrition insecurity rates in the country, which were only worsened as a fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic. “Host for Peace” is rooted in the Manq’a Schools model implemented in Bolivia. Successfully proven by ICCO/Cordaid in the country regions of Bogota, Cali, Putumayo, and Nariño since 2015; “Hosts for Peace” is a wager on peace building and social fabric restoration through the livelihoods improvement of underprivileged, displaced and demobilized young people from rural areas. 

These schools’ main goal is to foster economic empowerment by building capacities on technical cooking and hospitality skills (work oriented, knowledge and technical capacities) to those who could not otherwise have access to it. Accordingly, small-scale rural producers linked to this initiative, benefit from the possibility to secure commercial opportunities with the hotels, restaurants and food services partnered with these schools, wherein the students may ultimately be hired. Moreover, local consumers and tourists will profit from increased access to more affordable and varied (healthy) food, leading to more resilient food systems.

This model not only increases the employability of young people or the possibility of developing their own ventures – in a region where labour informality rates are high – but also has a focus on recovering ancient recipes and re-valorising local products, territorial identity and the gastronomic culture of the region. Re-valorising local food, at the same time, implies raising awareness on reducing food loss and waste and, as such, students are immersed in the concept of circularity. Thanks to these approaches, young people will be able to recognise themselves as agents of (sustainable) local development and reconciliation through the valorisation of their territories’ heritage while reactivating the economy through the services they provide along the region.

In Magdalena, the beneficiaries are young people from vulnerable backgrounds who live close to tourist areas of Tayrona Park such as Calabazo, Los Naranjos and La Revuelta. The trainings are carried out in mobile schools (food trucks),  where  innovative training programs are offered in cooking, accommodation and tourism services, providing them with tools and skills needed to generate income and to rescue and revalue local products.

Sabor Caribe scholarships

In addition, Makro’s “Sabor Caribe” scholarships were also announced at the University of Magdalena, where the opening of the “Hosts for Peace” program took place. This crowdfunding campaign organised by Makro, will encourage customers to make donations in their stores to contribute to the scholarships’’ program, and thus reach more young people in the Caribbean region.

All this being said (or written), the “Hosts for Peace” initiative is a good showcase of how partnerships among public, private and civil society organisations can result in virtuous circles towards sustainable development aiming at alleviating poverty, eradicating hunger and malnutrition and building a long-lasting and stable peace.