Family farming acquisitions and food quality provided in the municipal school network of Catuípe/RS

Abstract

The National School Feeding Programme aims to contribute to school performance, formation of healthy food practices, with food procurement logistics to promote local development with the inclusion of small farmers in this institutional market. The work aimed to verify the relationship of family farming in the supply of food for students of the municipal schools of Catuípe/RS, with the quality of the products acquired from family farmers and whits its repercussions in boosting local development. For the research, of a qualitative nature, documentary analysis was used to report on the quality of food, with emphasis on the municipal public calls for school meals from 2010 to 2019, retrieving information relating to the year, quantity, value and description of the food, which was classified into groups by type and according to the degree of processing. To analyse the relationships between family farming, school feeding and local development, open interviews were used with people involved in the operationalization of the feeding program in local schools. The main results show a higher volume of purchases of fresh and minimally processed foods, which are healthier, provided by family farmers. The others are food processed by family agro-industries, homemade or colonial type, with low use of ultra-processed ingredients and chemical additives. The increased participation of food provided by local farmers and agro-industries for school feeding in recent years indicates potential to contribute to local development from the perspective focused on the principles of food and nutrition security as a counterpoint to conventional agriculture.

Keywords: PNAE. Family farming. Quality of foods. Food and Nutritional Security. Sustainable local development.