Popular restaurants: Social policies under debate

Abstract

Public social policies are recognized, in this paper, as imperative, in capitalist societies, to enforce rights and fulfill human needs. In Brazil, and also in other capitalist countries, social policies were developed as a result of class struggle. However, when dependent on the release of public funds, these policies can be discontinuous. In terms of social policies, and in the context of food and nutritional security, Brazil’s Network of Public Facilities for Food and Nutritional Security and, particularly, the so-called popular restaurants, are aimed at providing the urban population with access to adequate food at affordable prices, thus giving priority to the most vulnerable people. The restaurants were originally created in the 1940s, and they are still being used to minimize political, social and economic imbalances. The effective contribution of these restaurants is to mitigate the situation of food insecurity. However, the irregular availability of public funds and the limited participation and control of society can compromise the implementation of this social policy and the fulfillment of the human right to food. Therefore, the shutdown of 16 restaurants, in 2016, in Rio de Janeiro, meant to relinquish the provision of emergency care and social protection.