Reaching preschool children through a community food program.

A community food program, known in Portuguese by the initials PCA, was carried out in the City of Ribeirao Preto, Sao Paulo, Brazil. It is a supplementary food and educational program aimed at reaching vulnerable groups living in the periurban area. The most important feature of the program is the utilization of the locally available infrastructure to reach the low socioeconomic level of the population. Six small food retail stores were used to distribute milk to over 200 preschool children living nearby. An educational program who provided for the mothers as well as participating children. Several parameters were statistically analyzed to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. It is concluded that this type of program represents a practical, inexpensive and fair way of making natural or processed foods available to vulnerable segments of the population.