Experiencias, significados y percepciones sobre la política de alimentación escolar y las contribuciones a la seguridad alimentaria y nutricional y la calidad de vida de niños y niñas de una ciudad de Argentina

Abstract

Introduction: given the current context of malnutrition and difficulties of access to food (food price inflation) reported in different countries and continents, school feeding policies have a central role to play. This article explores the experiences, meaning, and perceptions from teacher perspective on the school feeding policy (SFP) in Cordoba, Argentina, 2018.

Methods: it is a qualitative study with a phenomenological approach, with 18 teachers from nine public schools. In-depth interviews and content analysis were carried out.

Results: almost all the informants were specifically women, who were directly and sustainably involved in the practices of caring for students in the SFP. The teachers feel that their presence and accompaniment during the meal provided to the SFP are their responsibility, without much impact on possible changes and improvements beyond roles of supervision, control and reporting any problems. The negative experiences are linked to the nutritional and organoleptic quality of the preparations, although they stress the importance of this policy for food access. There is resistance to the norm through some claims and they are generators of social and cultural capital among students, teachers, and other actors, including aspects of socialization, values, learning, generation of habits and inclusive gender roles in the context of the SFP. They express vivid feelings related to their role and may experiment different perceptions linked to the specific trajectories of the group of students and show future expectations of improvements and more comprehensive visions.

Conclusions: it was possible to understand the process of teachers' involvement and the reasons "why" and "for" based on their subjectivities in the context of the SFP.

Funding: this work is part of the doctoral thesis "Public policy on child food and nutrition: an analysis of the implementation and impact of school canteens in Córdoba, Argentina" of the first author. The National Ministry of Health, Argentina, through the fellowship program “Dr. Abraam Sonis” (2018), provided the funds for the fieldwork; and the “Formando UNLaM” Program (2019), provided the funds for the writing of the final report of the first author's doctoral thesis, which included the qualitative analyses of this work.