PNAE (National School Feeding Program) and its events of expansive learnings at municipal level

Abstract

The National School Feeding Program (PNAE for its acronym in Portuguese) is one of the largest food policies in the world, partially covering the daily needs of 44 billion students per year. In 2009, Law No. 11,947 established that at least 30% of the total financial transfer of PNAE was used in the purchase of foodstuff directly from family farming in the left-wing government of Lula. In practice, the rules allow public policy managers to choose between bidding or public call, provision by large agribusiness companies or by family farmers, and this is practiced in idiosyncratic ways by 5568 Brazilian municipalities. Each municipality organizes its own system. Therefore, the aim of this article is to analyze how the evolution of Law No. 11,947 promotes expansive learning in the Brazilian National School Feeding Program (NSFP-PNAE), located in the Western Amazon. As a theoretical framework, the Cultural–Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) and the Theory of Expansive Learning (TEL) were used. Qualitative research in an abductive reasoning was carried out, using a single and incorporated case study as its strategy. The study included 21 interviews, later analyzed by Content Analysis. The main contribution is the advance in solutions for societal needs, in terms of continuous collective collaboration, creating expansive learning, transformative or not, in both sides of productive systems and consumption, integrating family farmers and students by a healthy nutrition and feeding in the same system since 2009.