With the success of plant-based school lunch pilot program “Good Food for All” in with 3598 students, age 7-12 years old in 2020-2021 in Nakhon Ratchasima province in Thailand, CATALYST has scaled up Meatless lunch (similar to meatless Monday) into a national program starting in August 2021.
The program intends to educate teachers nationwide who will become a primary change maker in this plant-based movement. In doing so, CATALYST is partnered with Office of the Basic Education Commission (OBEC), Ministry of Education in rolling out a 20-hours online national teacher training program in plant-based diet and a programmatic support for Meatless lunch at their school. After completion of 20 hours training and a proof of Meatless school lunch implementation at their schools, teachers will receive a certificate which may be used as part of a job promotion.
Thus far, we are providing training for at least 455 teachers throughout the country with about 320 schools ready to implement the plant-based lunch program in November 2021. We have received overwhelming interest from the Office of Basic Education and teachers from all over the country. CATALYST and OBEC are looking to train 400 more teachers and support about 200 more schools in plant-based lunch implementation.
