School feeding in the context of a pandemic: the resignification and protagonism of the National School Feeding Program

ABSTRACT

School meals are a right enshrined in the Federal Constitutional of Brazil, and it is the duty of the State to guarantee them to all students enrolled in the public basic education network. The main way to carry out this guarantee has been through the National School Feeding Program (PNAE). Since March 2020, when the World Health Organization declared the pandemic by COVID-19, several measures have been taken to control the disease, including the suspension of face-to-face classes, putting at risk the guarantee of the human right to school feeding in public school system. In view of this, this article, through a review, presents and discusses the reframing process and the challenges faced by PNAE in the context of the pandemic. It addresses the main changes that occurred with the enactment of Law n degrees . 13.987/2020, regulated by Resolution CD/FNDE n degrees 02/2020, which authorized, exceptionally, during the period of suspension of classes, the distribution of foodstuffs purchased with program resources to students' families. In addition, it presents the modalities adopted by the Executing Entities and the attributions of the different school feeding actors in the country, in the context of the pandemic, highlighting their reflexes on the food and nutritional security of this public.