Including Biodiversity Food in the Brazilian School Feeding: A Strategy to Ensure Food and Nutritional Security in Childhood

Abstract

Food systems must provide affordable and healthy diets for all while preserving natural resources and tackling challenges such as climate change, by using Brazilian biodiversity foods and reconnecting the rural and urban communities to increase food security. Brazil has a school feeding policy that seeks to value the purchase of family farming and regional food. This study aims to evaluate the use of Brazilian biodiversity foods in school feeding. Most cities buy foods from family farming, including regional foods, but biodiversity and organic foods are still rare. This suggests a needed incentive to increase the inclusion of such foods, reinforcing a lack of knowledge about regional native products and reaffirming the strong tendency to standardize eating habits and low variability of food in school menus with little local reference. Thus, the study discusses the Brazilian public policies that can contribute to including biodiversity foods as a strategy to guarantee food security in childhood. To strengthen institutional actions, we must carry out interventions aimed at improving the knowledge of nutritionists and school feeding managers, the nutritional value of biodiversity species, and the different ways in which these foods can be served to students.