Wij Inholland: Food Truck
Fourth-year Primary Education students from Inholland Alkmaar drafted a project plan and travelled in a food truck to primary schools to give cooking lessons. The ‘Food Truck’ project is an initiative of the Kroon van Holland foundation to get kids acquainted with healthy food in a fun way.
The Primary Education students were given the assignment to set up an enterprising project; the first step was to draft a project plan. They drove the food truck to three primary schools in the Noord-Holland region to conduct a pilot. Now that the pilot is finished, other students can put the plan into action as part of ‘Gezonde Pabo’ (‘Healthy Primary Education’), a special elective project.
‘Our guiding principle was to operate the truck in an enterprising way’, said Ellyne Groefsema. ‘For example, we save money by recruiting students from Healthy Primary Education. We take the money left over and put it towards buying groceries and leasing the truck. The primary schools can help our fellow students, too. Such as by organising a sponsored run, for example, or having the kids sell healthy snacks, with the proceeds going towards the food truck.’
‘I had such a great time teaching the kids how to cook. It's important to adapt your language to the age of the children’, said Ellyne. The primary school pupils were very enthusiastic about the cooking lessons. ‘De Kluft primary school in Den Helder was one of our stops; we made Father Christmases out of fruit with the youngest kids. The older children learned how to make pumpkin soup. In our experience, kids assume they won't like it but when they taste the soup they think it's delicious.’
Role division
Ellyne was responsible for promoting the pilot project, together with Anne van Lohuizen and Patrick Gerritsen. Kelly Jonckheere, Lisa van Tussenbroek and Pernelle Hoogland handled the finances. The test team comprised Caroline de Waard and Jip te Riele. Eveline Verweij, Jacobien van Duin and Sven Vermaat were the creative force behind the entire project.
In addition to the Primary Education students and the initiators from Kroon van Holland, various school administrators from the region were invited to brainstorm and discuss potential ways to encourage children to make healthy choices.
Wij Inholland
The students have been nominated for the Wij Inholland award 2017. Wij Inholland offers students an opportunity to distinguish themselves with an innovative project. To be eligible, a project must be innovative in relation to one of the following themes: healthy, sustainable or creative. Other criteria require that the project is multidisciplinary, has an added value for the region and that it involves cooperating with a business, institution or municipality. The winning project group will receive help in implementing their project, such as promotional support or access to an extensive network of businesses in various sectors.