Organic foods from family farms in the National School Food Program: Perspectives of social actors from Santa Catarina, Brazil

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To analyze suggestions that facilitate the use of organic foods produced by family farms made by the social actors responsible for Santa Catarina's school meals. METHODS: This qualitative and exploratory study used an electronic questionnaire for surveying 293 municipalities in the state of Santa Catarina in 2010 and identified the percentage of organic school foods purchased from family farms. The social actors from 52 municipalities who were responsible for organic food acquisition were interviewed in person. Their suggestions were categorized and analyzed by content analysis. RESULTS: A total of 446 social actors made 684 suggestions categorized into four themes: Awareness strategies for the use of organic foods (n=286) were proposed by principals and dieticians, who emphasized the need of educating social actors and community and raising community awareness; Better Programa Nacional de Alimentação Escolar management (n=148) was suggested by principals and family farmers, who wanted less bureaucracy and outsourcing, fewer taxes, and more management involvement; Better coordination between the demand and supply of organic foods (n=130) was suggested by principals, family farmers, and cooks because of logistic and supply problems; and Better management of school food production (n=120) was suggested by principals and cooks, who reported problems with the supply of specific foods, low organic food diversity, and lack of certification. CONCLUSION: For the social actors, the use of organic foods in the schools of Santa Catarina requires the education of those involved (technical support, educational strategies, and community awareness), government support, coordination between demand and supply, and better management of organic food production.

Family farming products on menus in school feeding: a partnership for promoting healthy eating

“…A study in rural areas of the cities of the Rio Grande do Sul state, showed that only 20.58% of the 102 cities surveyed have stated acquiring organic food from FF (SANTOS et al, 2014). It should be noted that there are some difficulties to acquire the organic/agroecological food for the school feeding programs as: the mismatch between supply and demand, the small range of food and the absence of certification (SILVERIO & SOUSA, 2014).…”

School menus in Santa Catarina: Evaluation with respect to the National School Food Program regulations

“…The results evidenced the need of valuing the information regarding the presence of these foods in the planned menus, in addition to increasing their use given their relationship with healthy food practices in their social, environmental, and cultural dimensions. On the other hand, Silva & Sousa 19 used the same database as the present study and use of organic foods, with emphasis on educating and sensitizing social actors and community; better government management of the program, especially less bureaucracy and taxes, more outsourcing, and more manager involvement; organization of the supply and demand of organic foods given the logistic difficulties and management of meal production because of the required volume of a certain harvested food and diversity of organic foods 24 .…”

Conselhos de Alimentação Escolar em Santa Catarina, Brasil: uma análise do Discurso do Sujeito Coletivo

“…A literatura aponta que os conselhos foram essenciais no processo de mudança no escopo das políticas públicas de alimentação e nutrição no Brasil, e impulsionaram, na última década, a inclusão das temáticas Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional (SAN) e Direito Humano à Alimentação Adequada (DHAA) nas políticas públicas dessa área, sobretudo no PNAE 14,15 . Dessa forma, a capacitação de conselheiros dos CAE tem sido um dos focos de 12,13 , é notável o núme-ro de artigos publicados sobre a temática nos periódicos nacionais que compõem a base Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) 9,[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] . Nos últimos cinco anos, embora se identifique interesse emergente pela temática alimentação escolar, consideram-se ainda escassos os estudos sobre a atuação dos CAE no Brasil.…”