School feeding in Brazil: a Cost Assessment of the National Program

Abstract

The Brazilian National School Feeding Program (PNAE) plays an important role in Brazilian National Education and given its broad structure and context, may serve as a guide for other developing countries. However, due to its large scale and its complexities, PNAE’s cost structure has not been thoroughly investigated. This study proposes a methodology to estimate the total cost for delivering a meal to a primary school student in Brazil1 . The results indicate that the southern regions (south and southeast) present higher cost per meal: US $ 1.55 and US $1.30 under econometric specification 1 and 2 respectively. Furthermore, the northern regions (northeast and north) present the lowest cost per meal: US $ 0.89 and US $ 0.90 under econometric specification 1 and 2 respectively. Furthermore, schools in areas of medium socioeconomic condition present higher cost per meal than those in areas of low and high socioeconomic condition. The average predicted cost per meal under OLS specification 1 by socioeconomic cluster (low, medium and high) is, respectively, US $ 1.03, US$ 1.31, and US $ 1.19. The average predicted cost per meal under OLS specification 2 by socioeconomic cluster is, respectively, US $ 1.13, US$ 1.30, and US $ 1.03.