Implementation of the national school nourishment program in the Brazilian Federal institution of Education of Bahia State

The Brazilian National School Nourishment Program (PNAE) is one of the strongest public policies of food and nutrition in the world. Besides guaranteeing free and high-quality meals to students in the basic public educational system, the PNAE also establishes that at least 30% of the resources passed on to the municipalities by the federal government should be destined for the acquisition of foodstuffs from family agriculture. However, the budget execution of the PNAE by Federal Institutes of Education has been challenging and limiting regarding the practicability of the acquisition of food from family farmers. In this study, we provided empirical evidence that constitutes an essential analytical approach still little explored in the literature, but capable of revealing operational barriers to the implementation of the program. The objective of this study was to describe the implementation and to understand the difficulties perceived by the agents responsible for the operationalization of the PNAE in the campuses of the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Bahia State (IF Baiano). Therefore, we collected secondary data from institutional documents, whereas the primary data were obtained by semi-structured interviews performed in ten campuses of IF Baiano and the rectory We observed that in some years. the budget destined to ME returned without implementation, evidencing flaws in the resources management. Thus, we concluded that some challenges need to be overcome before the implementation of the Program in these Federal Institutions.