Schools are highly interested in the promotional incentive of a programme teaching young children to eat healthy from a young age. The incentive is called ‘Let’s go outside for tasty food!’ or Lekker naar buiten! in Dutch. 2,273 schools applied for the funding over a three year period. The available funds were distributed among 1,177 school locations. These locations received a contribution of up to 2,000 euros. According to the schools, the incentive has helped pupils and students gain hands-on experience with healthy and sustainable food through activities such as keeping a vegetable garden, cooking or visiting a farm. This is the outcome of a review commissioned by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) and carried out by RIVM.
Most schools that participated in the review want to continue paying attention to healthy and sustainable eating through their experience with the promotional incentive. This can be done with the Healthy School (Gezonde School in Dutch) programme that supports schools in working structurally on health topics such as Nutrition, The environment and Nature.
Learning about healthy and sustainable eating at school
The promotional incentive of the programme Learning How to Eat Healthily from a Young Age (Jong Leren Eten in Dutch) aims to bring children and young people into contact with healthy and sustainable eating in schools more often. In a practical way, they can find out how their food is grown and what it tastes like. Not every child learns this information at home.
Since 2018, schools in primary, special, secondary and secondary vocational education have been able to apply for funding through the Healthy School programme. In spring 2024, schools can do so again. Schools interested in participating next year can subscribe to the Gezonde School newsletter or visit the websites Jonglereneten.nl and Gezondeschool.nl.
About the programme
The Learning How to Eat Healthily from a Young Age and Healthy School programmes share a lot of common ground: both programmes are aimed at teaching pupils and students in a practical way about making healthy and sustainable food choices. The Healthy School programme is a partnership between the Primary Education Council, the Secondary Education Council, the Vocational Education Council, the Netherlands Municipal Public Health Services and Medical Assistance in Accidents and Disasters, and RIVM. How to Eat Healthily from a Young Age is administered by the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV).