Experiences In Food And Nutrition Policies

Introduction

MEASURES to fight hunger and malnutrition have been studied by

several authors who have dedicated themselves to recording the

history of domestic policies in the field of food and nutrition

(Musgrove 1990; Vasconcelos 2005) and the impact of specific programs, such

as the National School Food Program [Programa Nacional de Alimentação

Escolar, PNAE] (Mazzilli 1987, Spinelli & Canesqui 2002, Ometto et

al. 2003) and the Workers Food Program [Programa de Alimentação do

Trabalhador, PAT] (Burlandi & Anjos 2001, Veloso & Santana 2002, Savio et

al. 2005), among others more short-lived.

Contributions from the literature on the subject invariably include the

requisite analyses of the social context of the families or individuals assisted by

the programs that compose current policies (Campino 1985). The association

between hunger and poverty is underscored (Castro 2004) and shows that this

problem requires structured policies combined with indispensable emergency

actions to fight immediate hunger (Vasconcelos 2005).

This understanding emerged not only in universities and governments,

but also in society as a whole, firmly establishing the issue of food and

nutritional security in the agenda of government officials in Brazil and other

countries, who are mobilizing to seek strategies to fight the lack of food and its

effects (Domene 2003).

The challenges of finding a solution to social unbalance, that hinders

the democratization of opportunities (Castro et al. 2004) and exposes a large

number of citizens to risk situations, may, however, compromise more generic

proposals, especially those conceived in isolation and that disregard the context

in which malnutrition occurs.

162 ESTUDOS AVANÇADOS 21 (60), 2007

Some successful actions, developed with embodied follow-up

mechanisms, indicate possible ways to follow and will be presented below.

Knowledge of these experiences – and, especially, of their operational limits

– should guide our steps to improve programs and policies in this area and

optimize the public resources used in their maintenance.