The study shows how Brazil's National School Feeding Programme (PNAE, its acronym in Portuguese)  contributed to fostering: on-farm transitions from low agrobiodiversity, input-intensive farming oriented to diversified farming systems (i.e., horticultural production), and a significant increase of the cultivated area under diversified farming systems. The horticultural output conversion favored the transition into an economically viable alternative to field crops, typically related to volatile and unpredictable markets. The convergence of public policies supporting intermediary needs, increasing farm household autonomy, and farm diversification represent an integrated mechanism to improve the food system's resilience.