Brazil's national school feeding program, whose roots trace to the School Meal Campaign that President Getulio Vargas instituted on March 31, 1955, after nutrition scientists had placed school meals onto the country's political agenda during the 1940s. Originally run under Brazil's Ministry of Education and Culture and known in Portuguese as merenda escolar, or school snack, the program was renamed the National School Feeding Program, Programa Nacional de Alimentacao Escolar or PNAE, in 1979, and it underwent its most significant reforms between 1994 and 2010, including a later requirement that a share of the food it serves be sourced from family farms. Seven decades after its founding, PNAE serves meals to a large share of Brazil's public school students each year across thousands of municipalities and is cited internationally as a reference model for sustainable school feeding programs.
Facts
Sponsoring BodyFundo Nacional de Desenvolvimento da Educacao (FNDE), the federal fund of the Ministry of Education of Brazil, which transfers program funds automatically to state and municipal education departments 2 Target PopulationApproximately 40 million students enrolled in every stage and modality of basic education, in the public school networks of Brazil 2 Health GoalTo contribute to the biopsychosocial growth and development, learning, school performance and healthy eating habits of students, through food and nutrition education and meals meeting their nutritional needs 2 Geographic ScopeNationwide across Brazil, covering students in municipal, state, district and federal public school networks at every stage of basic education 2 Measured ResultsThe program reaches more than 40 million children, adolescents, young people and adults through a national school meal service network 1 Classification
Program Kind Connections
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. WFP Centre of Excellence: PNAE Turns 70 Article
World Food Programme Centre of Excellence Against Hunger, 2025article body, opening paragraph on program founding
Created in 1955, the programme aims to guarantee the right to healthy food for basic education students.
article body, service network reach statement
With a service network that reaches more than 40 million children, adolescents, young people and adults, the programme provides balanced meals in public schools
Program classification, entity description sentence
Brazil's national school feeding program, whose roots trace to the School Meal Campaign that President Getulio Vargas instituted on March 31, 1955, after nutrition scientists had placed school meals onto the country's political agenda during the 1940s.
View the Source 2. FNDE: PNAE Program Page (gov.br)
Fundo Nacional de Desenvolvimento da Educacao (FNDE), Ministerio da Educacao, Brazilpage section on the fund transfer mechanism
o FNDE repassa as Secretarias Estaduais de Educacao (Seduc) e as Prefeituras Municipais (PM), de forma automatica
page section describing the scope of federal resource transfer
repasse de recursos financeiros federais para o atendimento de estudantes matriculados em todas as etapas e modalidades da educacao basica nas redes municipal, distrital, estadual e federal
page section on beneficiary numbers
aproximadamente 40 milhoes de estudantes matriculados em todas as etapas e modalidades da educacao basica
page section describing the program objective
contribuir para o crescimento e o desenvolvimento biopsicossocial, a aprendizagem, o rendimento escolar e a formacao de habitos alimentares saudaveis dos alunos, por meio de acoes de educacao alimentar e nutricional e da oferta de refeicoes que cubram as suas necessidades nutricionais
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