The challenge
Child hunger and poor diets hurt learning, while small farmers lacked stable markets.
The case
Brazil's National School Feeding Programme, run by the federal education fund FNDE, sends money per pupil to states and municipalities to serve meals in every public school. A 2009 law, Law 11.947, made school meals a right, required menus planned by nutritionists and set aside at least 30% of federal PNAE funds for food bought directly from family farmers. In the 2022 school year the programme fed 35,822,368 pupils, according to the Global Child Nutrition Foundation survey, and the federal government describes it as reaching about 40 million pupils in some 150,000 schools. Studies of individual regions show that compliance with the 30% rule is uneven across municipalities.
Why it worked
Linking a universal, legally guaranteed meal programme to local farm purchasing builds political support and spreads benefits to rural families, but needs monitoring to make local buying happen.
Sources
- Global Child Nutrition Foundation (2024). Global Survey of School Meal Programs: Brazil country report.
- Jornal da UFRGS. Programa Nacional de Alimentação Escolar chega aos 70 anos.
- Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural. Family farming purchases in the National School Feeding Program.
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