Family participation in school feeding programs to promote adequate and healthy eating

Abstract

Introduction: Food and Nutrition Education resources and strategies in Brazilian public schools should support people, families, and communities to adopt eating practices that benefit the development of autonomy and the exercise of citizenship. Objective: To understand how schools and families, through their joint actions, can promote adequate and healthy eating. Methods: This is qualitative research carried out in two public elementary schools, which have included foodprograms and family participation in their Political-Pedagogical Project. Participant observation, field journals, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups with community members were used and analyzed using a triangulation of qualitative methods. For the interviews and focus groups, transcription, categorization, and thematic content, analysis were carried out. Results: The thematic categories "Interaction between social actors" and "Participation of families in the school space" showed the possibilities of joint actions in the collective role of educators. The organization of the community into responsibility groups gave meaning to social participation, broke down the supposed lack of interest in food actions and made it possible for them to take part in the school's decision-making processes. The challenges are mutual distrust and the difficulty of promoting collective reflection to resolve conflicts and disputes. Conclusions: Establishing successful school-family partnerships puts children and adolescents at the center of the debate, alluding to everyone's collective role as educators, exploiting individual and collective characteristics for actions to promote adequate and healthy eating.