These days, it is a regular occurrence: early on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, a pleasant buzz can be heard in the assembly hall of Zuiderzeecollege. Tables are laden with bread, healthy toppings, eggs, fruit and yoghurt. Each time, a different class has breakfast together. The students also receive an explanation from their mentor about the Wheel of Five and the importance of a healthy, nutritious start to the day.

Creating a chart

“It all started when I was creating a chart with the third-year class,” says Peter Horn, head of department and teacher of Economics and Enterprise. “We were looking for input and decided with the class to map out who did and did not eat breakfast.” Peter was shocked by the results. No fewer than 47% of the students skipped breakfast. “That same day, I discussed it with our principal, Pieter Klok. Because whether or not you eat breakfast has such a major influence on your school performance. Within five minutes, we had made up our minds: we had to do something about this.”

Paprika crisps

Zuiderzeecollege is located in the deprived Poelenburg-Peldersveld neighbourhood. Peter: “Some students do not learn to eat breakfast at home. Or there is too little money. It may also be that a student would rather sleep a little longer, and then arrive at school with a bag of paprika crisps.”

Prosperity is not wellbeing

After the conversation with Pieter Klok, it was settled in no time: at the school, which has had a Healthy School Cafeteria for years, all 140 second-year students were offered a big breakfast. The fourth-year students were responsible for organising it; student involvement is very important at Zuiderzeecollege. The fourth-year students arranged everything: they drew up the shopping list, prepared a budget and designed posters. Peter: “We also developed a lesson programme for during the breakfast. Because this had to become more than just a fun event. Our aim was to raise awareness, also in view of obesity, a problem that we unfortunately see increasing.”

Abundant breakfast

The fourth-year students also invited various guests: the OVO Zaanstad Executive Board and people from the Municipality of Zaanstad (Pact-Poelenburg), people from the business community and colleagues from other schools. Pieter Klok: “We have many partners to whom we owe a great deal. We wanted to show them what we are working on. And it was appreciated: attendance was 100%!” And on 2 November 2021, the day had arrived. The assembly hall was full of students, teachers and guests by 8:15 a.m. There was an abundant but very healthy breakfast for everyone. During the meal, forty fourth-year students led extensive discussions about healthy food. Whether people ate breakfast, what they ate, whether they paid attention to the amount of sugar; that sort of thing.

Final measurement results

The morning was a great success, says Pieter. This was reason to continue the breakfast project in a different way. These days, all Zuiderzeecollege students therefore get the opportunity to have breakfast with their entire class once. Peter Horn: “Even then, it is about more than simply enjoying breakfast together. A mentor lesson on healthy breakfasts is given beforehand, and during breakfast the Wheel of Five is discussed using a PowerPoint presentation. The subject is revisited in a later lesson, when students have to put together a healthy breakfast themselves. We monitor the effect on healthy breakfast habits with a baseline measurement and an interim measurement. Afterwards, it turns out that a lot has changed. In a positive sense! Girls in particular eat breakfast much more often: the percentage who do not eat breakfast has fallen from 42% to 27%. Among boys, it was previously 52%; now it is 43%. That is still a gain of almost 10%. We hope that the final measurement will show even better results.”

Breakfast will remain

“Breakfast is not only useful, but also very sociable,” says Pieter. He should know, because he regularly joins in himself. “I want the students to see that I consider this very important. I often hear from students that they really enjoy it. And that sometimes it is even absolutely essential. That is why we already have a new plan: once all the classes have had their turn, breakfast will continue to be served twice a week—but now for the students at our school who really need it. There will be room for 60 students each time, 10% of the total.”

Minister of Education

Pieter continues proudly: “Another vocational secondary school in the neighbourhood was inspired by us and now organises a breakfast too. I would like this to become much bigger. The best thing would be if this happened throughout the Netherlands. I am going to invite our Minister of Education, Dennis Wiersma, to join us for breakfast one day. I want nothing more than to show that a relatively simple project like this can have a major impact on students’ health.” Pieter urges schools that would also like to do this but are hesitating about the approach: ‘Come and visit us sometime! Then I can explain in person that with an enthusiastic team and students, you can arrange this quite easily.”

Lunch and dinner

Pieter still has plenty of ambitious plans for his own school when it comes to nutrition. First and foremost, to obtain the Healthy School quality mark for Nutrition. “Although that is incidental in itself: the aim was simply to help the students eat better. And that does not apply only to breakfast. Pieter: “Before long, we will focus on lunch and perhaps even dinner. Because there is still so much to gain in terms of nutrition!”

Dilara (15): Organising a big breakfast is great fun and educational

Dilara Ongun is a fourth-year vocational secondary student, specialising in economics and enterprise. She says: “I eat breakfast every morning, otherwise I fall asleep during class. But I knew that many other students do not always do so. So I thought organising a big breakfast was a really fun idea. My friends and I put together the shopping list, among other things, and on the morning itself I was there early, wearing a black T-shirt with ‘crew’ on it. It was quite exciting, but also great fun to lead the conversations at the tables. The second-year students really listened to what I had to say. And so did our important guests—we called them the big shots. They were incredibly nice, told us all sorts of things and asked me questions too. Some honestly admitted that they sometimes skipped breakfast as well. The other students at school really like the fact that there is a breakfast for one class twice a week. They look forward to the day when it is their turn. Well, most of them do; they do have to arrive at school a little earlier for it. And when I tell people from another school about the breakfast, I always hear: ‘How nice that your school does this.’ I think so too; I am quite proud of it. And I also learned all sorts of things from this breakfast project. For example, that bread is less healthy than I thought. And that it is very important to read labels. I now know that some protein yoghurts which I always thought were healthy contain a lot of sugar. So from now on, I will leave those on the shelf!”

Tips from Pieter and Peter

  • Get older students involved in organising the breakfast.
  • Prepare for the breakfast in various subjects, such as biology (health), care (serving), economics (budgeting), and Media, Design and ICT (designing posters).
  • Carry out a pre-measurement, an interim measurement and a post-measurement of whether students eat breakfast.
  • Find a sponsor to cover the costs.
  • Come and visit Zuiderzeecollege!

Source: Healthy School.