MLP-supported dining hall serves up nutrition and more for Guatemalan students

Through a partnership between ED&F Man Liquid Products (MLP) and Pantaleon, a new student dining hall has been built to improve food security and educational achievement at a school in Guatemala. Supported by MLP’s MAS Program in collaboration with the Fundación Pantaleon, the facility opened in February 2025 and is already yielding benefits for the community.

Located in Siquinalá, Esquintla, the school is a vital facility for 457 young students, many of whose parents work with Pantaleon in sugarcane farming and processing. Previously, their school’s cafeteria could only seat 40 students at a time, creating a bottleneck that affected the children’s ability to study. The newly constructed dining hall has dramatically increased the capacity to 250, and is able to serve 500 meals per day – enough for all the students and teachers.

Along with the new space and furniture, other changes are taking root. A school nutritionist is working with the kitchen staff to create appropriately sized portions of nutritious food that counteract both malnutrition and obesity. These meals don’t just fill stomachs, they also feed hungry minds: Well-nourished students are more likely to attend school regularly and achieve higher education levels.

Other healthy practices are also on the menu, from a handwashing campaign that teaches the children good hygiene, to an emphasis on drinking plenty of water during the day, to a campaign that shares ideas for nutritious meals with parents so they can try them at home.

The dining hall even affects the school’s curriculum. Because full meals are now available, the school day has been extended from five to eight hours. This allows for additional lessons in English, math, reading, writing, and other subjects – and it also better aligns to working parents’ schedules.

This project goes beyond the construction phase and focuses on positive shifts in educational attainment and healthy habits among the students. The new dining hall aims to deliver at least 72,000 balanced meals per year, supporting an increase in the number of students entering the ‘normal’ nutrition range from 49 percent to 60 percent by June 2026. Ongoing health checks and 18 ‘school for parents’ sessions per year will further support the effort to promote healthier habits. The aim is to achieve or exceed 80 percent attendance rates at the school.

Meredith Smith, Head of Sustainability at ED&F Man Commodities and MAS Program lead, attended the opening of the new facility in February 2025, commenting that ‘A healthy lunch is the basis for so much more. This project goes beyond providing the cafeteria infrastructure to truly improving education and future opportunities for these students.’