Slide 4 of 5
Mapping of local smallholder farming production
The nutritionist has a fundamental role in creating school menus in Brazil. Whenever possible, it´s important that these professionals accompany the mapping of local smallholder farming production, which consists of, at least, surveying foodstuffs produced by local smallholder farming, the production amount of each of these foodstuffs and at what period can they be harvested: all necessary information for creating school menus.
TABLE FOR ILLUSTRATION PURPOSES
Participation of smallholder farming in school feeding.
President of an association in a Quilombola community in the outskirts of Cidade Ocidental comments how the fitting school meals to local realities encourage the creation of healthy eating habits.
It is during the mapping of agricultural production when the nutritionist has the chance to get closer to farmers and know, for example, how they are organized, what type of infrastructure they have to handle, pack and transport foods. This identification process can favour product diversification to attend to school feeding needs, which boosts the expansion of smallholder farming, bringing benefits to farmers and local communities.
With actions developed up to this point, actors involved in the acquisition (city halls, secretariats of education or schools) and nutritionists get familiar with local smallholder farming production, present the demand of school feeding to producers and organize themselves for the next step, which is the acquisition of foodstuffs for the PNAE – theme of our next module.
