Desperdício de alimentos e pegada hídrica na alimentação escolar de educandos do ensino público fundamental: estudo de caso em Presidente Bernardes-SP

Abstract

It is impossible to imagine the coexistence of people going hungry and the waste of food. Worldwide, millions of people are affected by this scourge. If food waste were a country, it would be in third place in greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, the investigation has a bias in the waste of food, a factor that impacts the question of the lack of these, greater than necessary production and the environment. The study was carried out at the Secretariat of Education of the municipality of Presidente Bernardes, in the interior of the State of São Paulo. The work is divided into two chapters that culminated in articles. The first session shows that it is possible to generate cost indicators and water footprint for food waste to promote decision-making and awareness, in addition to being able to motivate public policies and more effective inspection of resources. With regard to the target audience, elementary school students in public schools, a contingent of about fifteen million students are served daily through the Federal Government's school feeding programs, in addition to being a fertile field for desirable transformation of society from these, as they are individuals from seven to fifteen years of age, likely to be multipliers of the urgency of the subject. To achieve the objectives of this first phase, methodologies of documentary analysis of the data provided, observation of the practices of meal management and quantitative approach for the generation of indicators were used. It is possible to calculate the cost of food, simulate spending on waste and infer the amount of the water footprint of the food offered. Then, in the second part, the purpose of the investigation was to produce indicators of cost and waste in school meals for elementary school students, as well as to fund and identify the virtual water used in this food. Thus, this phase was developed through the construction of a system designed in Microsoft Access. The approach used to achieve this goal was applied research. Thus, the SIGA-ME system - Applied System of Management Information - School Lunch was born. The result was the availability of a duly parameterized tool to the City Hall. The database includes entries for the movement of inventories for the twenty days of March 2020. The researcher registered the application at the National Institute of Intellectual Property - INPI. In general, the results of this exploration show a pioneering attempt to present a management methodology and tool that makes it possible to manage school meals in a systemic way, seeking to avoid and reduce waste and demonstrating environmental impacts.