Tropentag, September 19 - 21, 2012 in Göttingen "Resilience of agricultural systems against crises"

The Right to Adequate Food within the School Feeding Program for Quilombola Communities in Amapá, Brazil

University of Hohenheim, Dept. for Social Sciences in Agriculture, Germany

Abstract

The Federal funds of the National School Feeding Program in Brazil are transferred to the State or Municipal Education Departments and in some instances directly to the Schools and are used for the procurement of food stuffs. Its objective is to contribute to meeting the nutritional needs of students and healthy eating habits. In 1988, the federal constitution recognised quilombola traditional territories rights and the right to adequate food in the public schools for all students. Quilombola are afro-descendants who live mostly in rural areas and considered to be one of the most insecure social groups. Since 2005, schools in quilombolas areas in the State of Amapá have received double per capita to provide better food for this group to improve their food and nutrition security situation. The revised School Feeding Program law signed in 2009 reaffirmed the right to adequate food for all students in public schools. In 2010, the Federal Constitution amended to explicitly recognised adequate food as a Human Right. The objectives were to analyse the realisation of the right to adequate food within the school feeding programme for quilombola in practice in the State of Amapá and to identify whether the programme functions in accordance with the existing national and international legislation. This is a qualitative exploratory research to describe the perception of quilombolas students and their families about the school feeding program, from a human rights perspective, through participant observation, written essays and in-depth interviews with public officers, right holders and stakeholders in charge of recourse mechanisms. Students don´t eat the meal at school when it is not good or enjoyable. Students and families don´t complain when the school doesn´t offer food neither when the food is not good. Rights holders don´t know about their rights, neither about recourse mechanism. Even Brazil recognised the right to food in national legislation, the State is not meet its obligation to respect, protect and fulfil the right to adequate food within the school feeding programme for quilombola.

Keywords: Human right to adequate food, Quilombola, school feeding

Contact Address: Roseane Viana, University of Hohenheim, Dept. for Social Sciences in Agriculture, 70593 Stuttgart, Germany, e-mail: nutrianegmail.com