IMPORTÂNCIA DO CONHECIMENTO DA LEGISLAÇÃO DO PNAE NAS ESCOLAS DA EDUCAÇÃO BÁSICA

Abstract

School feeding plays an essential role in the physical, cognitive and social development of Basic Education students, and the National School Feeding Program (PNAE) is responsible for promoting food and nutritional security in the school environment. Resolution No. 06/2020 brought important updates to the program, establishing criteria on mandatory and prohibited foods on school menus. However, challenges related to compliance with this legislation are still recurrent. In this context, the present work aimed to analyze the implications and challenges of the implementation of Resolution No. 06/2020 of the PNAE in the school lunch menu, seeking to understand the practices applied in schools and the contributions of food to the inclusion and nutritional security of students. The study was developed based on bibliographic research, analysis of educational products, field study with lunch cooks from three municipal daycare centers and elaboration of two educational products. The main results showed that, although the PNAE legislation is clear about the dietary guidelines, the lack of knowledge of the cooks about the established standards is one of the main obstacles to its effective application. The research evidenced the importance of educational products (information booklet and training course) developed and applied in this work as facilitating instruments in the dissemination of knowledge and in the promotion of healthy eating practices in schools. We conclude that the actions developed in this study enabled advances in the understanding and application of the PNAE legislation in the school context, valuing the role of the lunch cooks and strengthening school feeding as a right of students. We recommend that future research broaden the view on the subject, including other school actors and regional contexts, as well as the development of new educational materials aimed at food and nutrition security.