As a Mickey Leland International Hunger Fellow, I am currently working with the National Fund for Educational Development (FNDE) in Brasília, Brazil on the National School Feeding Program (PNAE). Next year, I will be working with GCNF in Washington, DC
FNDE is the implementing agency for the Brazilian Ministry of Education (MEC), and oversees school feeding programs, transportation, school repairs, and books. The National School Feeding Program, though nearly fifty years old, has undergone major changes since 2003 when President Lula Ignacio da Silva took office. Lula´s government created the Zero Hunger strategy (Fome Zero), a package of public policies focused on eliminating hunger and decreasing poverty. Bolsa Familia, a conditional cash-transfer program, and PNAE are two of several complementary initiatives meant to increase food security, especially for low-income Brazilians.
PNAE will undergo many changes this year due to new legislation passed in Congress. The School Feeding Law (Law no. 11.947/2009) mandates that a minimum 30% of foodstuffs procured for school feeding programs must be purchased locally from family farmers. The legislation emphasizes school feeding as a human right, supplementary to the right to education in the Brazilian Constitution. Furthermore, the law details that local eating habits and traditions should be respected in school feeding, and that local purchase from indigenous tribes, former escaped slave communities (quilombolas) and land reform settlements should prioritized. Indigenous tribes and quilombola communities also receive increased per capita amounts per child for school feeding.
As there are over 5,560 municipalities in Brazil, each with unique demographic characteristics, a decentralized model for PNAE was deemed necessary in 1994. Currently, funds are transferred directly from PNAE to State Secretaries of Education, municipal governments or federal schools.
My work with PNAE will be focused on monitoring and evaluation, a challenge for a program of this size. I will also work on international cooperation projects. PNAE receives visitors from around the world that are interested in learning from the Brazilian model. In the past month, we hosted delegations from Burundi, Zambia and Mexico. I have also been attending conferences, including the Northern Regional Nutritionists Conference and the Second Latin American and Caribbean Conference on the Measurement of Food Security, as well as meetings on humanitarian assistance. I am currently developing training manuals, translating legislation and proposals and preparing reports. In the next several weeks, I will begin to travel to field sites to participate in loco monitoring.
Article and photo submitted by: Amy Margolies, Congressional Hunger Center
One Response to “From the Field: Brazil´s National School Feeding Program”
Hello Amy,
I work on a rice fortification project for PATH, a global health non-profit. My project is funded through the Gates Foundation and works to enable children access to fortified rice through public sector feeding programs. We have projects currently in India through the mid-day meal program and have success in several municipalities in Brazil – Indaiatuba, Dourados and Sobral. I am not aware of the changing law concerning school feeding, we are also especially interested in reaching the indigenous communities in Brazil. I will be going to Brazil in a week and would like to meet with a group that might help the introduction of fortified rice on a national level. Can you suggest anyone or do you have any advise to offer?
Kind regards,
Carmen