Introduction:

Guaranteeing the right to food for the homeless population (HP) is a complex and multifaceted process that involves public equipment, reception services and philanthropic institutions, as well as the employees working in these places.

Objective:

To understand the perceptions of service professionals who offer meals for the HP about which aspects should guide the supply of food in the service so that it is understood as adequate and healthy.

Materials and methods:

Exploratory qualitative research with semi-structured interviews with employees of three services in the downtown area of the city of São Paulo, which offer ready-made meals to HP, and who are involved in the stages of planning, preparing and/ or distributing the food. The interviews were analyzed using the method of qualitative data analysis in which categories are constructed inductively.

Results:

For the food served to be understood as adequate and healthy, in the perception of employees, it is essential that it considers nutritional and food safety aspects, respecting guidelines, sensory characteristics of the meal itself and symbolic social culture and representative dimensions around the food, such as requests from the HP itself.

Conclusions:

It is important to explore and discuss the understanding of the food provided to the HP, aiming to guide the planning of actions for this population that ensure their right to food and their food dignity through adequate and healthy nutrition.