Programação de alimentação escolar : avaliação do desempenho em dez municipios brasileiros

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2002

RESUMO

The National School Meal Program in Brazil aims to improve the student nutritional conditions and his learning capability such as to develop good feed habits, through meal distribution during classroom breaks. fts management has been decentralized since 1993 when the counties started to receive funds from the Federal Government for food acquisition and important changes were registered in a way to improve the quality and acceptance of the meal. Aiming to evaluate the Program performance in Brazilian counties with different management characteristics as decentralisation models linked with compensation or quality improvement programs, a quality-quantitative study was carried out. This aimed to know the administrative and operational conditions, nutritional fitness and acceptability of the school meals offered as well as important factors for student program participation. A field research was carried out in ten counties, two from each Brazilian region. All data were collected through local visits in the Meal Program Departments and in two schools units of selected counties. Specific methodology was developed for interviews with program managers and for activity observation. Nutritional value was calculated based on quantity of feed used for meal preparation converted as nutrients using a specific software. The parameters used were those recommended by NRC (1989) and Vannucchi et aI. (1990). Meals acceptance was calculated using the methodology recommended by Silva (1996) and Brandão (2000) and the student participation to the program was evaluated using the index recommended by Gandra &Gambardella (1983). Aspects evaluated as basic for the program participation taken into account were student sex and age, feeding practices, nutritional status (using anthropometric standards in accordance with NCHS/CDC (2000) for score Z values and for mass corporal index percentiles distribution) and social economic conditions. SAS system was used for statistical analyses, Qui-square tests for contingency tables and logit model in a way to identify simultaneous influence for the factors taken into account. The results obtained showed poor institutional conditions for most of the counties and school units evaluated, mainly due to quality and availability of human resources. This fact has reflected negatively over the program nutritional objectives no matter the decentralisation system used for the program improvement. It was registered satisfactory acceptance of the meals by the students that participated in the program but this participation revealed to be low (approximately 45%). This fact could be linked with the kind of meal offered. The program participation was bigger for male and younger student, with weight deficit, low social economic levei and for those that didn t use the school commercial establishment to buy foods. It is advised that more investments by the county government hiring more specialised technicians, beyond systematic personal training and supervisiono Also it is recommended to have more studies to identify preferences for a better menu planning and nutritional education through classroom activities for a healthy feeding

ASSUNTO(S)

avaliação merenda escolar politica alimentar nutrição

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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