The European SchoolFood4Change (SF4C) project, funded by Horizon 2020, aims to make sustainable and healthy food the norm in schools. To this end, they are collaborating with as many as 12 EU countries and offering a whole range of good practices that can be applied both inside and outside the EU. Rikolto developed the Whole School Food Approach (WSFA), while other partners developed all sorts of other materials, such as criteria to use when tendering for public contracts. In Flanders, Rikolto would like to see a food policy in all Flemish schools.
All children in school are vulnerable to nutrition-related health problems and disadvantage. Read more about the challenges we face.
Today, 800 million people around the world go hungry, while around 650 million people are overweight or obese. And we throw away up to 1/3 of the food we eat. It is unacceptable that one group continues to throw away food en masse while another group has inadequate access to nutritious food. This has to change. With the European SchoolFood4Change (SF4C) project, we want to work towards this change.
SF4C sees schools and children (0-18 years) as catalysts for systemic change through a shift towards sustainable and healthy diets for all EU citizens. If all children at school have equal access to healthy and sustainable food and develop good eating habits from an early age, this will have a positive long-term impact. Of course, implementing something like this on a large scale is not easy. That is why Rikolto has developed the Whole School Food Approach (WSFA), an approach to working on good food in and around schools worldwide.
Within the SchoolFood4Change project, Rikolto is responsible for developing the Whole School Food Approach (WSFA). WSFA is an integrated approach. This means that we look not only at the food in schools, but also at food education and policy and the school environment. This is the only way to ensure a lasting impact.
Development of the WSFA framework
The WSFA framework is scientifically based on evidence from the Czech/Slovak Truly Healthy Schools model, the UK Food4Life and the Belgian GoodFood@School (GF@S) programme, among others. The WSFA framework is also linked to UNESCO's Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) programme. The model has been developed with partners from 12 EU countries.
Capacity building for city partners and school staff
We support several partners to start working on their own. With this plan, we aim to successfully implement the Whole School Food approach in the different cities and schools involved in the SchoolFood4Change project. Our coaching has several objectives:
The SchoolFood4Change project started in 2022. By 2026, we aim to reach as many as 600,000 pupils in 3,000 schools.
The objectives of Rikolto's GoodFood@School programme in Belgium are aligned with the objectives of the European SchoolFood4Change project. A list of all partners can be found here.
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