Willeke Alberti, friend of Het Vergeten Kind, the National School Breakfast’s chosen charity this year, welcomed Year 8 pupils from De Rivieren primary school in Amsterdam with her well-known song De Glimlach Van Een Kind. Radio 4 presenter Maartje Stokkers then introduced the pupils to seven orchestra members and their instruments. The 11-year-old Elena climbed onto the conductor’s podium and, together with conductor Paavo Järvi, gave the world-famous orchestra the signal to begin breakfast. Under his direction, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra then performed fast and slow sections from Brahms’s Fourth Symphony. In this way, music set the tempo for the difference between having a relaxed or hurried breakfast.

Conductor Paavo Järvi lets 11-year-old Elena give the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra the signal to begin the National School Breakfast.

Notable breakfast habits

At this official opening, the National School Breakfast also announced the results of the Breakfast Monitor, an annual study into the breakfast habits of primary school pupils. It shows that 95% of children aged 4 to 12 now eat breakfast almost every day. In 2008, this was still 80%. Less positive is the percentage of children who eat a healthy breakfast. Only 3% eat breakfast in accordance with the healthy optimum: the Wheel of Five. In families with children, there is particularly little vegetables (12%) and fruit (26%) on the breakfast table. The average breakfast lasts 19 minutes, but as children get older, they spend less time on breakfast (from 21 minutes in the lower grades to 17 minutes in the upper grades). Only 60% of families say they eat breakfast in a relaxed atmosphere. Of the children surveyed, 43% eat breakfast in front of a screen: a television, computer, tablet or smartphone.

Extensive breakfast package

More than half a million children at 2,750 primary schools are taking part in the nationwide educational breakfast event. In 250 municipalities, school classes also bring breakfast to their mayor at the town hall. The healthy breakfast package has been fully compiled in accordance with the guidelines of the Wheel of Five from the Netherlands Nutrition Centre. Children can choose from whole-wheat bread, rolls and currant buns, whole-wheat crackers, gluten-free bread, low-fat margarine, 30+ cheese, apple syrup, 100% peanut butter, cress, yoghurt, muesli, milk, tea, cucumbers and apples. The package also includes festive placemats, colourful classroom posters and, for home, a Fabeltjeskrant calendar with all kinds of useful breakfast tips. The National School Breakfast is supported by, among others, Jongeren Op Gezond Gewicht, the Maag Lever Darm Stichting, the Dutch Coeliac Association and Gezonde School.

Teaching materials and Binnenhof breakfast

In addition to the healthy breakfast package, all schools also receive new and updated teaching materials for all year groups. There are animated videos that get classroom discussions going, and the online Breakfast Meter helps children discover how healthy their breakfast is and how they can improve it. There is also a new lesson about the Five Golden Rules of breakfast. In addition to the opening and the breakfasts at schools and town halls, the Binnenhof breakfast is scheduled for Tuesday, 5 November. The Hague schoolchildren will sit down at the table in ProDemos with members of the Senate and House of Representatives and State Secretary Paul Blokhuis. They will take part in a quiz about the results of the breakfast survey. On Friday, 8 November, schoolchildren will conclude the 17th edition during a breakfast with Mayor Ron König at Deventer town hall. On that occasion, he will present the cheque to Het Vergeten Kind on behalf of all the mayors who symbolically paid for their breakfast with a donation to this charity.

Opening photo: Opening of the 2019 National School Breakfast with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.