MASKS COVER THE FACE, HUNGER UNMASKS THE REST: COVID-19 AND THE FIGHTING AGAINST HUNGER IN BRAZIL

Abstract

The year 2020 will be marked in world health history due to the COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus or a new coronavirus. Among the actions taken by international health authorities, the most important and impacting is social isolation. The measure, fundamental to combat the advance of the pandemic, brings with it many expected consequences in the economic and social field, such as the increase of misery and hunger. This article seeks to problematize this issue from the political and technical aspect of food and nutrition security policies. It rescues the different contexts of the country's fight and actions against hunger, culminating in the current situation of social policies secondarization in the country. It presents several potentialities of the existing programs on the public agenda as a way of mitigating the consequences of hunger, also suggesting adaptations in its implementations in the pandemic context. Finally, the role of the State as a protagonist in combating hunger and reducing poverty in the country is reinforced in a structural way, assuming the strengthening of the existing social policies.