Providing Proteins to Belizean Residents Through Poultry Products

Belize is a food insecure, developing country. Although Belize has plenty of nutritious food in-country, the exportation of that food to generate income contributed to a distribution issue of that nutritious food. More impoverished areas of Belize do not have access to nutritious food because of the lack of affordability and high export rates. Diets with a lack of food, or lack of balanced, nutritious food can negatively impact growth and cognitive development, especially in children. Poultry is one of the only products in Belize not able to be exported. Implementing poultry into Belizean diets would affordably alleviate food insecurity and contribute to more balanced, nutritious meals to bolster growth and cognitive development. The University of Arkansas partnered with St. Matthew’s Anglican School in Pomona, Belize to implement a poultry complex to stock their school canteen with meat and eggs. Based on the school’s population of 200 students and 100 faculty, and the need for both meat and eggs, background research suggested 100 broilers and 100 layers would be the target number of chickens. Two poultry houses (one for broilers, one for layers) were designed prior to arriving to Belize and then altered due to local availability of materials and management practices. A brief handbook was written to outline the steps taken to build the poultry complex at St. Matthew’s Anglican School with the purpose of allowing other local schools to build the same type of complex to have access to affordable, nutritious protein. Follow-up communication has revealed successful meat and egg rearing for St. Matthew’s school and integration of poultry rearing into school curriculum.