Page 131 - ON THE WAY TO HEALTHIER SCHOOL CANTEENS - Irma Evenhuis

In order to be able to build upon, and maintain, sustainable networks in the long term, study funding should incorporate financial opportunities for such collaborations. Only then will it be feasible for involved stakeholders to build upon and invest in those meaningful collaborations.
The contribution of nutritional experts in the implementation of school canteen guidelines, in our programme with school canteen advisors, is unique and worthwhile and should be maintained. Such experts are particularly important in connecting and increasing collaborations between schools, caterers and the local Community Health Services. Drawing on their experiences in different schools, they can provide schools, but also organisations in others settings like sports canteens or work-site cafeterias, with tailored advice and examples. Although the Canteen Scan was constructed in such a way that stakeholders are able to check their canteen and receive advice without external support, relying on self-reported data may be more prone to desirable answers, leading to a more positive score. Consequently, an additional check and support by an independent reviewer like a school canteen advisor is necessary [155].
The collaboration inside schools should be strengthened
The physical and social environment inside the school, consists of more than the schools’ cafeteria and vending machines. Consequently, to strengthen the impact of a healthy school environment on students’ behaviour, additional efforts inside school are needed. These are 1) active involvement of students and parents; 2) communicate one coherent message about healthy dietary behaviour; and 3) creating a school environment were youth can learn how to adopt a healthy lifestyle.
Active involvement of students and parents is recommended because it can increase the
success of a healthier school canteen and may influence healthy eating at home [174, 224]. 7 Although we advised schools to involve students and parents, they experienced difficulties
in this. The offered fact sheet containing students’ needs and wishes was experienced as a
first step in the involvement of students. More efforts are therefore needed to really involve
students. Other successful examples are: school gardening (and sale of produce in the
canteen), students-chefs (and production of items which can be sold in canteens), allowing
students (co)decide about the assortment, combining activities for the canteen with the nutritional education, and allowing students to make promotional materials to display in
the canteen [174, 225, 226]. With regard to parental involvement, increased attention and
practical tools on how parents can be involved are likely to support schools. In one of our implementation tools, the advisory meeting, we aimed to engage all relevant stakeholders,
such as schools’ management, teachers, students, parents, and the (external) caterer.
However, only one school included parents in this meeting, so more support is needed. It
may be beneficial to focus on multiple health related themes instead of just one, and to
involve students in bridging the gap between the school and home environment [224]. This
will enable both the physical and the social environment to support students in making
healthier dietary choices. This could include, for instance, organising a meeting for parents
where their children can show what they have learned, like cooking a meal, or allowing
students to make food related exercises at home in which parental involvement is needed
[227]. However, since it differs per school how students and parents can be involved best, collecting good examples from schools in a hand book, which can be distributed by the
129