[School meals as an area for education in health: the perception of school cooks in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil]. / Alimentação escolar como espaço para educação em saúde: percepção das merendeiras do município do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.

By considering the school as an opportune space for health education, school cooks can play an essential role in the debate as they are directly responsible for the preparation of school meals. The main objective of this study is to highlight the potential of the participation of these professionals in educational processes, acknowledging that they are not merely individuals who perform an activity in the kitchen and dining-hall areas. In order to achieve this, a quantitative survey was conducted followed by a descriptive analysis of the data by performing a chi-square test and factor analysis. Some changes in social and economic aspects and in the form of hiring the cooks were identified. However, it was also ascertained that the acknowledgement of this professional as an actor in health education still depends upon a series of transformations in the structure, values and concepts regarding the important role that they perform and the most effective way of incorporating them in the educational environment.