Brazil, 2025
The National School Feeding Program (PNAE) is recognized as the largest school feeding program in Latin America and a global benchmark in the sector, reaching approximately 150,000 public schools, more than 40 million students, and providing over 50 million meals daily during the school year. Over more than 70 years, the program has evolved from an emergency and welfare campaign into a constitutional state policy, characterized by its universal reach and its commitment to healthy eating and support for family farming. A decisive milestone was Law No. 11,947/2009, which established the obligation to allocate at least 30% of federal resources to the purchase of food from family farms, simultaneously strengthening food security, productive inclusion, and rural development. Despite its international reach and recognition, the PNAE still faces structural challenges to fully realize its transformative potential. The inclusion of small producers in more vulnerable contexts and the deepening of nutritional and sustainability criteria in public procurement emerge as fundamental strategic axes for the program to advance in realizing its potential for systemic transformation.
Main themes
• Public procurement
• Food security
• Mission-driven policy
• Innovation in public policy
• School feeding program
Read this study if you…
• Wants to understand how public procurement can be used as a strategic instrument to promote inclusive and sustainable economic development.
• Seeks to understand how public food programs can simultaneously address food security, rural development, and environmental sustainability.
• Looks for references on procurement frameworks that promote productive inclusion, reduction of inequalities, and local socioeconomic development.
• Is interested in the challenges and opportunities of operationalizing mission-driven policies in federative governance structures.
Suggested citation
Spanó, E. e Mazzucato, M. (2026). Brazil's National School Feeding Programme: Leveraging public procurement to drive sustainable food systems transformation. UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose.
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