The first pillar, “Integration of Research, Education and Public Policy”, traces back to CREN’s roots as a university extension project. Over the past 30 years, CREN and its research partners have conducted academic studies primarily focused on the nutritional health of children and adolescents. Most of the scientific output of the dozens of partner universities and educational and research institutions has been produced by departments of Escola Paulista de Medicina/UNIFESP, where CREN’s history began. In this pillar, CREN, as an organized civil society, also engages in spaces of social participation in the development and social control of public policies, such as the Nutrition and Poverty Research Group at the Institute of Advanced Studies of the University of São Paulo, Regional Food and Nutrition Security Committees, and more.   

The Nutritional Health and Wellness Care pillar offers comprehensive nutritional care, validated in Pillar 1, for children and young people up to 19 years old, provided in the following ways:

a) Directly in the community, through home care visits and active search in anthropometric censuses in order to reduce the invisibility of children with malnutrition and obesity.

b) In the outpatient clinic, with care by a multidisciplinary team including speech therapists, nutritionists, pediatricians, psychologists, and physical education professionals.

c) In the day boarding school, for children under 6 years old in an Early Childhood Education Center (CEI) model. 

In the latter type of care, in addition to the educational curriculum proposed by the city, children receive five meals with minimally processed and mostly organic foods and participate in Food and Nutrition Education activities according to their age and development. 

With the Care Instruction, at the end of the follow-up by CREN, children and adolescents, along with their families, are expected to improve their eating habits; increase the time spent on physical activities and reduce sedentary behavior; expand their relationship networks; reduce the prevalence of comorbidities associated with obesity and malnutrition; and improve their anthropometric indicators. 

And, finally, Pillar 3, Innovation, Consulting and Dissemination, which scales up and disseminates CREN’s methodology, tested and validated in accordance with the previous pillars, both nationally and internationally. 

So far, CREN has conducted projects and consulting services in 17 countries, as well as in several regions of Brazil. One of the most relevant consulting services has been the transfer of methodology for the implementation of a Nutritional Recovery Center in Maceió. This pillar reflects CREN’s innovative character and readiness to adapt and meet the needs of each territory and the people living there.

Disseminating means leaving the methodology as a legacy in those areas and making the professionals and managers involved co-responsible for the care of children and young people in their territories.