The Nutrition Centre has been awarding the Healthy School Canteen Scale since 2013 to schools that make it easier for students to make healthier and more sustainable choices in the canteen. Students’ eyes are immediately drawn to the healthier options: wholegrain sandwiches with healthy toppings, vegetables and fruit, and water as the obvious thirst quencher. Schools can achieve a silver, gold or ideal Healthy School Canteen Scale by ensuring that 60, 80 or 100 percent of their offerings, respectively, consist of better choices.
Of all secondary and senior secondary vocational school locations where young people can buy food and drinks, 64 percent are actively working on creating a healthy school canteen. That amounts to nearly 1,200 school locations. Zone.college Enschede is currently the only school in the Netherlands with an ideal school canteen.
Michelin star
“This really feels to us like receiving a Michelin star,” says Jeffry Brummelhuis, teacher and Healthy School Coordinator at Zone.college Enschede. “We have worked incredibly hard for it, and this is the crowning achievement. We are immensely proud that we are now the only school canteen in the Netherlands offering nothing but products from the Wheel of Five.”
“Of course, there are always students who complain that they cannot buy sweets and the like, but we sell 99 percent of all the sandwiches. And that is five days a week. I think the hot chicken sandwich is probably the most popular sandwich we currently have. So our students no longer really notice that everything is healthy. It has become completely normal for them. What also helps is that students assist with preparation and sales during breaks. Whenever we ask who would like to help, we always get an enthusiastic response.”
Final step
Liesbeth Velema, an expert in nutrition and behaviour at the Nutrition Centre, is also proud of the result. “Young people encounter food all day long. At home, on the way, at sports clubs and, of course, at school too. Unfortunately, we know that most of the offerings in the food environment are unhealthy. In supermarkets, for example, it is 80%. Yet we need to teach young people that healthy food is tasty and completely normal. This helps them develop a healthy eating pattern.”
“We see that many schools are working to make their canteens healthier. We are proud of every school that takes steps towards healthier offerings and to which we can award a Healthy School Canteen Scale. Zone.college Enschede shows that it is possible to take that final step and make the entire offering and appearance of the canteen healthy.”
Read more about the Healthy School Canteen here.