The Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV) wants to bring children and young people into contact with healthy and sustainable food more often through education. In this way, it aims to teach them in a practical manner how to make healthy and sustainable choices. To this end, LNV established the Jong Leren Eten ‘Lekker naar buiten!’ incentive scheme. Since 2018, schools in primary, special, secondary and secondary vocational education have been able to participate in this scheme each school year.
The RIVM evaluates this scheme every round. The evaluation of the fifth round shows that schools are very interested in the incentive scheme and view it positively. The main reason for participating is that it enables schools to pay attention to food and nature. For example, by purchasing materials, providing education on these topics and organising guest lessons. The scheme is particularly important when there is not yet enough money to fulfil these wishes.
Schools could choose activities within three categories: ‘gardening’, ‘cooking’ and ‘excursions and guest lessons’. In this round, demand for activities in each category was approximately equal.
For round 5, 851 schools applied for funding from the incentive scheme. Of these, 514 schools received a contribution because a maximum amount was available for the incentive scheme. This reached 72,138 pupils and students. Most schools carried out the activities together with other local organisations, such as (urban) farms, local farmers, dietitians/nutrition coaches, gardening coaches, restaurants or retailers in the region. Of the participating schools, 93 percent want to continue paying attention to food after the scheme ends.
Schools could receive a maximum of 2,000 euros per school location to carry out the activities. On average, 1,749 euros was paid per school location. According to most schools, this contribution covered the costs of the activities. In round 5, the incentive scheme cost a total of 983,502 euros. The money was mainly spent on the activities. A small portion was needed to develop and implement the incentive scheme.