Page 17 - ON THE WAY TO HEALTHIER SCHOOL CANTEENS - Irma Evenhuis

[81]. This concept, which aims to strengthen health promotion in primary, secondary (vocational) education, is based on four pillars: 1) health education; 2) early identification 1 of students’ health problems; 3) school environment that stimulates healthy behaviour;
and 4) health policy. Schools can earn a Healthy School Certificate for eight different health
themes if they meet the criteria defined for each pillar within the health theme. The
health themes include, among others, sport and physical activity; social well-being; drugs,
alcohol and smoking prevention; and nutrition. The healthier school canteen is part of
the nutrition theme, within the pillar healthy school environment. Schools are awarded a
“Healthy School Nutrition Certificate” if they have a healthier canteen and fulfil the criteria
defined for the other three pillars.
At the local level, in particular the Community Health Services are involved in the implementation of the “Healthy School Approach” and healthier school canteens. In the Netherlands, Community Health Services implement the local health policies which determine the capacity of the Community Health Service to support schools. Also, with regard to the school health promotion including a healthier canteen. Consequently, their involvement differs per municipality, ranging from annual visits to intensive guidance. The Netherlands Nutrition Centre collaborates with the Community Health Services by exchanging knowledge and examples, and aligning their support to schools.
At the school level, as schools have the freedom to choose how they organise their canteen, there are many differences in terms of which and how many stakeholders are involved in creating healthier school canteens. In case the canteen is arranged by the school itself, it is organised by parents, students, or employees of the school. Making it particularly important to involve all those stakeholders in the process.
Since schools can also contract a catering company to arrange their school canteen, catering companies are another party involved in the implementation of the Guidelines for Healthier Canteens. At the same time, collaboration with other stakeholders in the school, like students, parents and teachers also remains important. Catering companies can organise the offering in school cafeterias, in vending machines, or use both. Some companies only operate in one or a small number of schools, while others operate in several schools. The national organisation JOGG (“Young people at a healthy weight”) coordinates the “Akkoord Gezonde Voeding op Scholen” (in English: “Agreement Healthy Nutrition at Schools”) for catering companies, suppliers and producers [82]. In this agreement, involved parties have committed contributing to healthier school canteens. The actions of these parties are regularly monitored by the school canteen advisors, and inspiration sessions and shared activities are organised. The Netherlands Nutrition Centre and JOGG collaborate with respect to this agreement.
As has been shown, multiple stakeholders, with different roles, and from multiple organisations are involved in the process of creating healthier school canteens. Reasonably, all have a different organisational context, aims, tasks, obligations and face different challenges. To increase implementation of healthier school canteens, these have to be taken into account while developing support. This can only be achieved by involving the different stakeholders during the development and evaluation of the implementation tools.
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