This work evaluated the performance of the Municipal Boards of School Meals, created to assist and supervise the school meals program. Through the analysis of the information obtained from September 1997 to April 1998, in 1 378 Brazilian cities, it was verified that the Boards' main task is the supervision of the use of the resources assigned to the National School Meals Program (76.90% of the cities), followed by the monitoring of the Program at schools (63.45%), by the participation in the elaboration of the menu (50.41%) and by the assistance in the planning, execution and evaluation of the Program (38.90%). The adjustment in the multivariate probit models showed significant variables for the participation of the Boards in different attributions and it proved that the decentralization of the management of the Program increased the efficiency of the Boards' performance. However, the results highlight the need for a more effective performance of the Municipal Boards of School Meals as a tool for the popular participation and the promotion of the National School Meals Program.
school feeding; municipal board of school meals; patient participation; nutrition programmes and policies
