Contribuição do Programa Nacional de Alimentação Escolar na situação de segurança alimentar e nutricional em famílias com crianças até seis anos durante a pandemia de Covid-19

Abstract

School feeding is one of the public policies focused on the oldest food and nutrition in Brazil and that remains in force. Considering the situation imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, and the suspension of face-to-face classes, the implementation of the National School Feeding Program (PNAE) emerged as a challenge. The federal government authorized the distribution of food purchased with PNAE resources to students from public schools, and most educational institutions opted for distribution in the form of kits. In this context, the objective of this study was to verify the association between food insecurity, sociodemographic characteristics and access to The PNAE in families of children enrolled in early childhood education schools in the public school system in the municipality of Campo Erê, in the context of the suspension of face-toface activities in schools during the Covid-19 pandemic. This is a cross-sectional study, conducted with families of children enrolled in early childhood education schools, in the urban perimeter, in the municipality of Campo Erê, Santa Catarina staty. The sample was for convenience and the data collected on the day the students were delivered to their parents, or guardian, during December 2020. A questionnaire was applied for sociodemographic characterization and access to the PNAE (independent variables), as well as the Brazilian Food Insecurity Scale (EBIA) to identify the situation of food safety or insecurity (dependent variable). Information was obtained on the number, composition and distribution of food kits from the Municipal Education Department. For statistical analyses, the Software SPSS version 26 was used. The Chi-square test and Fisher's exact test were used to investigate the existence of an association between the dependent variable and the independent variables. Statistical significance was considered p < 0.05. The multivariate model (logistic regression) led to the independent variables that presented p ≤ 0.20, and the final model was composed of those with p < 0.05. A total of 865 food kits were delivered to students from early childhood education schools in the municipality studied. Approximately 45% of the students removed the kits. A large of 122 families participated in the study. According to EBIA, 35.2% of the families had some degree of food insecurity. Still, 60.7% of the interviewees stated that they had removed at least one food kit distributed during 2020. There was an association between food insecurity with several sociodemographic characteristics, such as age, skin color, maternal education and paid work, family income, various sources of income, loss of employment or income reduction after the beginning of the pandemic, and the removal of food kits distributed by schools. The final multivariate model showed that families benefiting from the “Bolsa Família” Program, which were retired, or pensioners, were more likely to have food insecurity. On the other hand, the family income of three minimum wages, or more, reduced the chances of food insecurity. The findings reinforce the relationship between food insecurity and indicators of social vulnerability and point to the importance of PNAE as a policy to promote food security.