Greening schoolyards and implementing food education in primary schools: can these be combined?

Providing food education in primary schools and greening the schoolyard are both ways of contributing to teaching a healthy lifestyle and offering a healthy food environment. In addition to teaching about healthy and sustainable eating habits, food education can be given practical form through experiential activities, such as having a vegetable garden at the primary school. In this way, greening the schoolyard by creating a vegetable garden can be linked to food education, allowing the benefits of both to be utilised.

How do primary schools view this combination?

Until now, it was not known what schools’ views were on combining greening and food education, or how feasible it would be for schools to establish a connection between the two. Through twelve interviews with school teams and school administrators, the Louis Bolk Institute, in collaboration with Jong Leren Eten, IVN and JOGG, examined primary schools’ views on combining the greening of schoolyards with food education and the feasibility of implementing this. Three factors emerged from the interviews that are needed to make the connection between greening and food education feasible. First, school teams and school administrators need to recognise the coherence between greening and food education. In addition, support from parents/carers, the school team, pupils and the neighbourhood is needed. Finally, schools must be able to integrate the greening of the schoolyard and food education into the rest of the curriculum they already have.

Practical guidance

The experiences and practical tips from the schools involved in this study offer primary schools guidance on making it easier to link greening the schoolyard with providing food education. Further research could examine the views of the neighbourhood and parents/carers on creating this combination, as well as the effects of the combination on pupils and their environment.

More information about this study can be found in this (English-language) article.
This study was funded by Triodos Foundation, Stichting Goeie Grutten, Jong Leren Eten and JOGG.

Also read the Louis Bolk project page on Healthy and sustainable food for young people.

Source: Louis Bolk.