Abstract

Introduction

The Programa Nacional de Alimentação Escolar (PNAE - National School Feeding Program) is one of the oldest public policies in Brazil and one of the largest school feeding programs in the world both in number of students served and resources allocated. In addition, this program is currently an important nutrition and food security strategy, as it promotes the human right to adequate food through school feeding, in addition to several actions that contribute to meeting the World Health Organization (WHO) Millennium Development Goals.

Since its creation, PNAE has undergone several structural changes that have resulted in advances, of which one of the most important ones is the support for local sustainable development, with the promotion of the acquisition of diverse food products produced locally and the respect for healthy regional eating habits.

In 2009, Law 11,947 was approved, providing for the provision of school meals and consolidating the link between family farming and PNAE by establishing that at least 30% of all financial resources provided by the federal government to the states and municipalities should be used to purchase food products directly from family farmers and rural family entrepreneurs or their organizations, prioritizing land reform settlements, traditional indigenous communities and "quilombos" (Brazilian hinterland settlements founded by people of African origin, most of whom were escaped slaves).

The operationalization of this policy is highly complex, as it involves several sectors of the government and society, on the municipal, state and federal levels. In addition, for such policy to function adequately, there must be favorable conditions in the several spheres involved with both the school feeding program and family farming.

As this law is relatively recent, the operational process is still being implemented in several municipalities of the country. In this sense, it is important to conduct a diagnosis of the process of implementation of local purchases made for PNAE in the municipalities of Sao Paulo state.

Methods

A survey was conducted in June and August 2011 by institutions linked to the Comissão Estadual Intersetorial da Alimentação Escolar (CEIA - Intersectoral School Feeding State Commission). The Universidade de São Paulo School of Public Health participated as a collaborative institution.

A questionnaire was developed to collect data, assessing the municipalities' status in relation to the acquisition of food products directly from family farmers, between June 2009 and August 2011.

Data were collected through telephone interviews and participants were those responsible for the municipal school feeding program or managers of such program who could answer the questions. Each telephone interview lasted ten minutes on average.

The questionnaire was applied in a standardized way by different interviewers from distinct institutions. Some of the questions were open-ended, such as those about job position and institution of participants, number of public calls issued and percentage of federal government resources used to purchase family farming foods, through public calls in 2010. The question about whether the public call was issued or not was closed-ended, requiring a yes or no answer. Percentages were recorded as a response to the question about the resources used to purchase family farming foods, so that calculations were not required.

It should be emphasized that 95% of municipalities of the state of São Paulo participated in the survey. All questions were responded, although not all participants could report the percentage of resources used.

Results

Of all 645 municipalities of São Paulo state, telephone interviews were successfully conducted in 613 (95%). In the remaining 32 municipalities (5%), it was not possible to contact an individual qualified to provide information in a reliable way.

Of all 613 cities assessed, 47% (288) had performed all stages of the implementation of local purchases at least once since 2009, i.e. they had issued at least one public call, received the food products and paid the producers.

Out of the 325 cities that had not implemented all the process stages, 57% (185) had not issued a public call, 37% (120) had issued a public call but had not signed a contract of purchase, 2% (7) had issued a public call and signed a contract but had not received the products, and 4% (14) had issued at least one public call and received the products but had not paid the producers yet.

With regard to the percentage of resources used for purchases in 2010, of the 288 cities that implemented all the stages for such purchases, only 65% (186) could provide this information. The percentages varied from 1 to 70%, according to the information provided

Conclusion

The data obtained with this survey enabled researchers to identify, in general terms, the municipalities of Sao Paulo state status in relation to the acquisition of food products directly from family farmers for the school feeding using resources from the federal government. As Law 11,947/2009 has recently been published, the fact that 47% of the municipalities have already made local purchases for PNAE at least once since 2009 is a positive result. On the other hand, a considerable number of municipalities have not issued a public call yet or have already issued calls but have not signed a contract.

It is suggested that the next step should be a qualitative assessment of the process of implementation of local purchases, as it is necessary to know in detail what is causing public calls not to be issued and contracts not to be signed. In the municipalities where purchases have become effective, it is important to identify the percentage of resources being used and to determine whether products are being purchased in accordance with the Fundo Nacional de Desenvolvimento da Educação (FNDE - National Education Development Fund) recommendations, which state that basic food products should be selected, based on local dietary habits and culture and regulated by regional agricultural diversity and sustainability.

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