Everyone has an equal right to adequate food, but not everyone has equal access. In many places around the world, cheap, ultra-processed foods often crowd out healthier options.¹,² Children are particularly vulnerable to the health effects of poor diets, so it's vital to ensure good nutrition from the earliest years.³

Schools play an essential role in creating an enabling environment for good nutrition. They not only provide access to nutritious foods, but also help set lifelong habits.⁴ However, the school food environment doesn't always support healthy choices.⁵ To change this, strong school nutrition and food procurement policies must promote healthy options and limit children's exposure to items that are high in salt, sugars and fats, or ultra-processed.

The city of Córdoba, Argentina is showing how this can be achieved. In 2021, Argentina enacted a law establishing national measures to promote healthy diets such as front-of-package warning labeling, regulation of food and beverage advertising, and transforming school environments.⁶ As the country's second-largest city, Córdoba has since been working to apply these regulations in its public schools through an initiative called "Córdoba Elige Agua" (Córdoba Chooses Water). This initiative aims to transform school food environments by promoting water consumption and regulating the supply of ultra-processed foods in school kiosks and canteens.

The city used a step-by-step approach. Rooted in local data, the first phase focused on 38 municipal schools. Hydration points were installed to encourage water instead of sugary drinks. Awareness and food education activities were rolled out with students, teachers, and families. The city also developed "Healthy Food and Beverage Guidelines," in collaboration with the Partnership for Healthy Cities.

Scaling up required a new municipal policy to make sure all schools followed the same standards. In June 2024 the Mayor of Córdoba issued Decree No. 310/2024 which established school kiosks providing exclusively healthy food, restricting advertising of unhealthy products, and promoting water as the drink of choice. The measure applies to all municipal education institutions, with a phased implementation plan and clear enforcement guidance.

Results so far have been striking. Today, 100% of municipal schools provide safe, free drinking water. In 2025, the city also received a Partnership for Healthy Cities award in recognition of its policy achievements around school food. As one of the first cities in the country to apply the national law via local regulations, the city has positioned itself as a leader in the school food space.

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1 FAO. (2019). El estado de la seguridad alimentaria y la nutrición en el mundo 2019. Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Alimentación y la Agricultura. [https://www.fao.org/3/ca5162es/ca5162es.pdf]

2 Monteiro, C. A., Cannon, G., Moubarac, J. C., Levy, R. B., Louzada, M. L. C., & Jaime, P. C. (2019). The UN Decade of Nutrition, the NOVA food classification and the trouble with ultra-processing. Public Health Nutrition, 22(1), 4-7. [https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980018002361]

³ UNICEF (2022). La nutrición infantil y el derecho a la alimentación saludable. Fondo de las Naciones Unidas para la Infancia.

4 WHO (2021) "Action framework for developing and implementing public food procurement and service policies for a healthy diet" [https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240018341]

5 WHO (2021) "Implementing school food and nutrition policies: A review of contextual factors" [https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240035072]

6 Ministerio de Salud de Argentina (2021) Ley 27.642 de Promoción de la Alimentación Saludable. Gobierno de Argentina https://gifna.who.int/countries/ARG/policies/77537