Alimentação escolar em tempos de pandemia : um olhar sobre o direito humano a alimentação adequada e a segurança alimentar e nutricional

Abstract

The Brazilian constitution defends the right to education, health and food insecurity as a basic right of citizens. In this sense, one of the oldest programs that aim to guarantee the population's food and nutrition is the Programa Nacional de Alimentação Escolar - PNAE, which offers school meals and food and nutrition education actions to students at all stages of public basic education. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the importance of school meals in guaranteeing the Human Right to Adequate and Healthy Food for students enrolled in public schools. METHODS: This work is divided into two stage; the first relating to the understanding of the role of school meals in guaranteeing the Human Right to Adequate and Healthy Food and food insecurity, through bibliographic searches; and the second referring to the characterization of households with students from public schools who eat in schools. This is a cross-sectional study, based on secondary data from the Household Budget Survey conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, between July 2017 and July 2018. The perception of food insecurity was evaluated by EBIA. RESULTS: Of households, 0.42% were headed by women, with an average age of 50.3 years and an average household income of R$1,034.80. In addition, 20% of the household is inhabited by at least one school-age child, and, among them, 16% were enrolled in the public school system and had at least one meal at school. Food Insecurity is a condition experienced by 53% of Brazilian households with schoolchildren enrolled in the public school system, and 39% of Mato Grosso households with students enrolled in the public school system. CONCLUSION: Taking into account the social and economic situation of the population, further intensified by the covid-19 pandemic, the importance of school meals in guaranteeing the Human Right to Adequate and Healthy Food should be highlighted. Households in Food Insecurity have greater difficulties in accessing adequate food environments, especially when considering the quality of food, the availability of places for its production and acquisition, as well as the price of food versus the purchasing power of families.