The reform of the school nutrition system, launched in 2020, requires a comprehensive approach to its implementation in the main areas:
- new meals catering rules and procedures in educational institutions,
- training of qualified cooks,
- procurement organisation,
- providing canteens in educational institutions with the necessary equipment,
- communication of new approaches to meals organisation and changes in the school menu.
Local governments focus on the first four points of the above list. However, communication is often overlooked as an important element contributing to the successful implementation of change on the ground. The success of the reform in general depends on the effective communication with pupils, their parents, and municipality residents. After all, it is the complex communication of innovations in the school nutrition system that contributes to the formation of the culture of healthy eating not only in educational institutions, but also in families, and promotes healthy nutrition in society.
When we usually talk about communication, we first of all mean such concepts as connection, engagement, interaction, and so on. But for local governments, communication has another important aspect – the ability to influence how the public accepts and supports the initiatives and actions of local self-government. Therefore, to successfully communicate the changes in school nutrition, it is necessary to analyse the target audiences, i.e. groups of people with whom we want to communicate, understand their needs and motivations. This will help to form an approach to systematic communication with different target audiences, taking into account the factors that are important to them.
In this context, communicating the changes in approaches to nutrition, the new menu, and the need to form proper eating habits, to schoolchildren is an extremely important, if not a key task. After all, these are children who will benefit from the results of the reforms and who can influence the formation of healthy eating culture in their families and in society as a whole.
During October 2021, the U-LEAD with Europe Programme conducted a series of workshops and consultations in the regions for local government representatives and school principals on the implementation of school nutrition reform. U-LEAD experts Serhiy Dyatlenko and Alevtyna Sedochenko together with the participants of the events worked out approaches to informing and actively involving pupils in promoting the principles and practices of healthy eating within “18 ideas for children”, some of which are presented in this presentation. (DOWNLOAD).
