Celebrated on August 31st, Nutritionist Day is an important date to honour these professionals, who play a key role in promoting health, well-being and reducing malnutrition. In addition, they ensure that menus in public schools are balanced, safe and culturally relevant, contributing directly to the education of students and the development of healthy eating habits.
Nutritionists from the National School Feeding Programme (PNAE) are responsible for planning, coordinating, organising, supervising and evaluating food and nutrition in schools, contributing to the promotion of health and well-being and the reduction of malnutrition
“Nutritionists play a strategic role in school feeding programmes, as they combine technical knowledge with social awareness. The work of these professionals goes beyond putting together menus: it helps to make schools a place of learning about healthy eating and citizenship,” says Sineide Neres, a nutritionist at the World Food Programme (WFP) Centre of Excellence against Hunger in Brazil.
This initiative is reinforced in the reality show Vida de Merendeira (Life of a School Cook), an initiative of the Centre of Excellence in partnership with the National Fund for Education Development (FNDE, in Portuguese) and the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC, in Portuguese), which values the joint work between school cooks and nutritionists, highlights regional ingredients and shows how creativity can be combined with PNAE guidelines to ensure quality meals in schools. The winners of the most recent edition of the reality show were Josefa Graciane Ribeiro (Graci), champion school cook, and nutritionist Janaina Barbosa, technical manager responsible for school meals in Limoeiro de Anadia (Alagoas – Brazil) since 2013.
The winning menu was a recipe that made integral use of various ingredients: salad, tropeiro beans, meat stew with vegetables, and licuri farofa. When commenting on her victory, Janaina said that she adapted the recipe to comply with PNAE rules. ‘I included licuri, suggesting farofa with this ingredient typical of the region, which was very well received by the students,’ she said, highlighting how the nutritionist’s technical knowledge enhances positive results in the school and the community.