Smaaklessen is an educational programme for primary schools about food, in which experiencing food is central. Children explore and experience their food in a playful way by tasting, touching, hearing, smelling and looking. Through food and nutrition education, they acquire the knowledge and skills they need to make healthy and conscious food choices now and later in life.
Effectiveness
The educational programme has once again been assessed at the level ‘First indications of effectiveness’. The assessment is conducted by the Centre for Healthy Living (RIVM). They assess lifestyle interventions through a recognition process. In this process, independent experts determine the quality, effectiveness and feasibility of interventions. All recognised interventions can be found in the intervention database. Smaaklessen is the only nationwide programme at the level ‘First indications of effectiveness’.
The effects identified relate to taste development, the willingness to try (new) products and knowledge about healthy and sustainable food. The committee considers enriching the educational programme with a Smaakmissie, an interactive lesson module on a theme or basic product group, such as food waste, vegetables, meat or dairy, promising for further increasing the effectiveness of the educational programme.
Further development of the educational programme
In recent years, the content and implementation of Smaaklessen have been further developed, enabling the educational programme to be offered in a modern digital environment via the Chef! educational portal. This allows primary schools to use the educational programme more flexibly and tailor their own educational offering. There are now more than 20,000 accounts on the educational portal, and more than 75% of primary schools work with Smaaklessen.
For several years now, the Smaaklessen educational programme has also been a permanent component of the EU School Fruit Programme. In addition to weekly deliveries of vegetables and fruit, participating schools also receive access to all the educational materials from Smaaklessen.
In the coming years, the aim is to further increase the impact and implementation of the Smaaklessen programme. Efforts will focus on increasing the use of Smaaklessen within primary schools and improving its alignment with existing initiatives in the field of food education, thereby increasing its impact. The programme is kept up to date, and its content is strengthened in response to technological and societal developments. A version of Smaaklessen is also being developed for special education.
Want to know more about Smaaklessen? Visit www.smaaklessen.nl