Food for the homeless people in the context of Covid-19 in Brazil: a qualitative debate based on the newspaper O Trecheiro.

Introduction: The food and nutritional insecurity of the homeless population goes beyond the denial of basic rights, such as housing, and encompasses the uncertainty of what, when, where and how to eat. It is therefore essential to give voice to the vulnerabilities and demands of this population. Objective: To describe and discuss the main issues that permeated the theme of food and eating in articles in the newspaper O Trecheiro, focused on the social realities of the homeless population in Brazil, during a period of the Covid-19 pandemic (March 2020 to February 2021). Methods: This was a generic qualitative research with data production from documentary analysis; the content analysis method was adopted to categorize the documentary corpus and discuss the themes constructed from the data. Results: "Food as a right" emerged as part of the knowledge and struggles of homeless people. The themes and sub-themes that emerged included food as a right that is not guaranteed, linked to the failure to guarantee other needs (land and work); ways of guaranteeing food and other inputs (solidarity, popular struggle); and the senses and meanings that food and the rituals surrounding it have for homeless people. Conclusion: Thinking about the care and feeding of this population requires a comprehensive and multifactorial approach that takes into account the complexity of the group studied, as well as the various aspects that permeate the experiences of these individuals, such as structural and sociopolitical issues and the individual experiences discussed in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]