O Programa Nacional de Alimentação Escolar no município de São Gabriel da Cachoeira/AM

Abstract

This dissertation, developed within the Graduate Program in Education (PPGE/UFAM), in research line 1: Education, State and Society in the Amazon, analyzes the materialization of the Brazilian National School Feeding Program (PNAE) in its interface with Indigenous school education in the municipality of São Gabriel da Cachoeira, in the state of Amazonas. It is based on the assumption that the implementation of this policy occurs in an unequal and contradictory manner, conditioned by institutional, territorial, and sociocultural mediations that challenge the effective realization of the right to culturally appropriate school feeding. The study is grounded in historical-dialectical materialism as its epistemological, theoretical, and methodological framework, understanding the PNAE as an expression of the relationships between public policies, educational financing, and the concrete conditions of social reproduction in Amazonian contexts. Methodologically, it adopts a qualitative approach, based on bibliographic and documentary research, including the analysis of School Census microdata, financial transfers from the National Fund for Educational Development (FNDE), and municipal administrative records. The findings indicate that, although the program presents normative advances and expanded access, its implementation is marked by structural limitations related to institutional capacity, logistical conditions, and territorial specificities. A mismatch is identified between financing and execution, as well as difficulties in consolidating family farming, despite the recent growth in the participation of producers. The analysis of procurement reveals the incorporation of regional foods, indicating an articulation with local food culture, although in an unstable and discontinuous manner. Furthermore, a contradiction is identified between the normative recognition of diversity and the operational criteria for funding allocation, based on the location of schools, which do not fully account for the sociocultural diversity of students. It is concluded that the materialization of the PNAE in the municipality reflects tensions between the universality of public policies and the particularities of Amazonian Indigenous contexts, highlighting the need for greater alignment of educational policies with territorial realities.