Government wants solidarity kitchen project – 02/09/2023 – Market

The federal government wants to include solidarity kitchens in the list of actions to remove Brazil from the Hunger Map, a UN (United Nations Organization) tool that measures adequate access to food. A project establishing the initiative will be presented by federal deputy Guilherme Boulos (PSOL-SP) this Thursday (9).

The goal of public policy is to provide free lunch to people who are starving. It foresees that the Ministry of Development and Social Assistance, Family and Fight against Hunger register the solidarity kitchens across the country from a public notice.

With this, they will start to receive public resources for the purchase of food and the payment of personnel. The purchase will be made by the entity, following the parameters of the Federal Government’s Food Acquisition Program. It has not yet been defined how much will be allocated to the program, which will depend on the budgetary availability of the federal government.

The project allows the government to also provide, if necessary, the physical structure where the kitchen will operate and equipment to process food, transport and store it.

The Minister of Development and Social Assistance, Family and Fight against Hunger, Wellington Dias (PT) discussed the program this Tuesday (7) in a tripartite meeting with municipalities and states. The purpose of the meeting was to evaluate alternatives to remove Brazil from the Hunger Map.

“In addition to Bolsa Família, Cozinha Solidaria/Restaurantes Popular is part of this planning, in addition to the Full Time School Program, which, in addition to the education part, has lunch and within the School Meals program”, said Dias to Sheet.

According to the justification for the project, “Solidarity Kitchens are part of a set of measures to combat food and nutritional insecurity, the latter being of a more emergency nature, which will bring immediate access to adequate and healthy meals”.

“Food insecurity is something that has worsened beyond the macroeconomy and beyond extreme poverty. It is a certain paradox, Brazil is one of the largest food producers in the world, but we have many people in food insecurity”, analyzed economist Marcelo Neri , director of FGV Social.

For him, solutions such as solidarity kitchens allow “serving a lot of people, which leads to gains in scale”, but it is also necessary to think about more lasting solutions. It is at this point that it is important to combine more emergency policies like this one with larger initiatives, such as Bolsa Família, he assesses.

This Thursday (9), accompanied by Boulos, Dias should visit a solidarity kitchen that already operates in Ceilândia, the largest city in the Federal District.

The deputy’s project provides that existing solidarity kitchens will be able to participate in the federal government program. This includes both the initiatives of the MTST (Movement of Homeless Workers), a movement to which Boulos is linked, as well as hundreds of others throughout the country maintained by community associations, churches and other civil society organizations.

The administration, management and inspection of the Solidarity Kitchens will be the responsibility of the Suburbs Secretariat, of the Ministry of Cities, headed by Guilherme Simões, an MTST militant and nominated by Boulos for the position.

The inclusion of initiatives based on an announcement in which the establishment itself registers avoids possible conflicts of interest, in the parliamentarian’s view.

“Serious public policy has to be for everyone. Therefore, we decided that the project will be carried out through public notices, with criteria that allow the participation of the largest possible number of organizations and entities in a transparent manner and with permanent inspection”, said Boulos .

For him, “the role of the Solidarity Kitchens of the MTST is just that of having a great accumulated know-how that contributed to the elaboration of the public policy proposal under discussion”.

The movement, which Boulos has already coordinated, maintains 31 solidarity kitchens in 14 Brazilian states. They were created by the MTST in 2021 as a result of the impoverishment of the population caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Together, they have already served more than 1.2 million meals.

The collection of food and cash amounts is made from donations. They also promote the cultivation of urban gardens close to kitchens.

At first, the Solidarity Kitchens program will focus on the outskirts of large cities and should have 30% of food purchases coming from family farming. This percentage should reach 70% as the program advances.

According to Neri, the peripheral regions of the metropolis “are places of new poverty, where it has increased a lot in recent years. And when poverty increases, food insecurity increases more”.

The country returned to the Hunger Map in 2019, when the percentage of people suffering from malnutrition was above 2.5%. The number was below the cutoff line between 2015 and 2018.

In 2020, the most recent data available, the number reached 4.1%. Taking Brazil off the Hunger Map is one of Dias’ stated goals, but there is no deadline for that to happen.

In addition to providing free meals, solidarity kitchens must also carry out cultural, educational and legal support activities. With that, foresees the justification of the project, they will give “capillarity to advance in right to the city in the regions less assisted by the Public Power”.