The organizations involved in the Terra Nutre project have launched a participatory process to collect data and assess information regarding food production and procurement by the National School Feeding Program (PNAE) in 10 municipalities and 7 Regional Education Offices (DREs) in Mato Grosso.

The Terra Nutre project aims to promote income and food security by strengthening the PNAE, bringing healthy and traditional foods to public school students, as well as encouraging crops and farming practices that preserve the environment.

The data collection and diagnostic assessment were carried out through a technical cooperation agreement with the Mato Grosso State Department of Education (Seduc-MT) and the 10 municipalities involved in the project: Paranaíta, Nova Bandeirantes, Carlinda, Alta Floresta, Porto Esperidião, Vila Bela da Santíssima Trindade, Mirassol d’Oeste, Poconé, Nossa Senhora do Livramento, and Guarantã do Norte.

As explained by Camila Rodrigues, deputy director of the Instituto Centro de Vida (ICV), the diagnostic phase is essential to ensure that the actions proposed in the Terra Nutre project—which is scheduled to begin in the field in the second half of 2026—are relevant to the local reality.

“The most important thing is to listen to all parties involved in the process and verify that what the project is proposing is relevant to all partners. We want to know how communities understand public policy, the priorities and demands of production, and how Terra Nutre can help promote the supply of traditional and healthy foods to schools,” she explained.

“As for procurement, we want to know how the policy is implemented by the executing entities—for example, how menu planning works, the flow of public calls for bids, the issuance of invoices and payments, and what the demand from schools is. The entire set of challenges involved in securing the procurement of these products through the PNAE,” she added.

Based on the results of this phase, a work plan will be developed for the project’s implementation over the next three and a half years. The director of Comida do Amanhã (CdA), Francine Xavier, reports that regarding procurement, preliminary results show that some implementing entities already purchase more than 85% of their food from family farms, while others have not yet reached the 30% target.

“The data collection carried out by the partners and the preliminary analyses and systematizations conducted by CdA are currently underway. We will meet for the first time with Seduc, DREs, and municipalities to validate, present, and discuss the collected data. Following this, an assessment will be prepared of the opportunities and challenges faced by public management in implementing public food policies related to food procurement for the PNAE in Mato Grosso.”

On the production side, approximately 30 community organizations representing family farmers, indigenous peoples, quilombolas, and traditional communities were consulted during the process.

According to the coordinator of ICV’s Social Economies program, Eduardo Darvin, the main difficulties faced by farmers are logistics for delivery and scaling production according to demand. For indigenous communities, however, the issuance of documents and invoices was identified as the biggest problem.

“The assessment helps us understand the current state of the organizations involved in the project across different areas, such as their engagement with the PNAE, their production capacity, and the main bottlenecks to expanding and enhancing the participation of family farmers and indigenous peoples in this public policy,” he said.

In addition, the Mato Grosso Federal Institute Development Support Foundation (FUNADIF) conducted a data collection phase on the implementation of the PNAE in Mato Grosso municipalities using the methodological strategy of the School Feeding Observatory’s (ÓAÊ) “Levanta Dados” initiative.

Nutritionists, municipal secretaries of education, school feeding technical teams, members of the School Feeding Councils, principals, cooks, farmers, and teams responsible for public procurement were interviewed.

IFMT professor Jussara Meira explained that the initiative will inform technical analyses to strengthen public management and contribute to improving public food procurement policies.

“The results will directly contribute to the development of the Terra Nutre project’s actions, especially in strengthening territorial strategies and promoting school feeding as a foundational public policy.”

Terra Nutre

One of the objectives of the Terra Nutre project is to develop and implement strategies to enhance the PNAE in Mato Grosso on two fronts: strengthening sustainable food production by family farms (including production from indigenous peoples, quilombola communities, and traditional communities and ensuring that these foods are purchased by the municipal and state public education systems.

Based on this, Terra Nutre hopes to create concrete opportunities to increase income in these communities and improve food and nutritional security among young people and children living in the region covered by the initiative.

By encouraging the traditional crops and practices of Indigenous peoples, Quilombolas, and other traditional peoples and communities—who produce food while protecting the environment—the Terra Nutre project also promotes the conservation of water, biodiversity, and the climate.

The project is funded by the Amazon Fund/BNDES under the Amazon at School initiative and is implemented by ICV in partnership with the Socio-Environmental Institute (ISA), the Center for Alternative Technology (CTA), the Food and Culture Institute (ICC), the Food of Tomorrow Institute (CdA), the Sustainable Connections Institute (Conexsus), and the Foundation for the Support of Development of the Federal Institute of Mato Grosso (FUNADIF).