Numerical adequacy of nutritionist, profile of menus, number of students in school feeding services in the south of Rio Grande do Sul

The aim of this study was to characterize the execution of school feeding services of public schools in the Southern Zone of Rio Grande do Sul, as well as to obtain information regarding their menus, students and numerical adequacy of nutritionists. A cross-sectional study was carried out with nutritionists from the school feeding services of municipalities of the Southern Zone Association of the state affiliated to the Federation of Associations of Municipalities of Rio Grande do Sul. After authorization by the municipal managers and their own consent, the professionals answered an online questionnaire about their sociodemographic characteristics, training and performance in school feeding services, as well as questions about number of students and meals in schools. It was verified the inadequacy of the number of nutritionists in the municipalities, as well as the total workload of the same in relation to the recommendations. All service nutritionists were female, more than half were over 40 years old (53.9%) and almost two-thirds had postgraduate degrees (61.5%). Most professionals reported having technical responsibility for school feeding (84.6%) and in terms of schools, municipal schools were more frequent (77.0%). As for the number of meals served annually, the majority served 20 thousand or more in day care (46.2%), pre-school (76.9%) and elementary school (76.9%). School menus according to eating habits, with 46.1% elaborating by type of education and almost 70% reported concern with total caloric value, macro and micronutrients according to the age group of the school. Regarding the preparations, only 30% referred to the use of per capita, technical data sheet and product data sheet. The inadequacy of the number of professionals and the lack of standardization of the preparations found in the study may be due to the overload of tasks, which may take a long time to manage the services and resources of the National School Feeding Program.