Despite improvements in recent years, many schools are still serving unhealthy food to their pupils at lunchtime. That’s according to the three-yearly survey by the Flemish Institute for Healthy Living. Furthermore, there is still work to be done when it comes to ensuring that pupils get enough exercise.
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School meals are still all too often unhealthy
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First the good news: Schools in Flanders and Dutch-medium schools in Brussels are making strides to ensure that their pupils eat more healthily. The Flemish Institute for Healthy Living’s survey found that free tap water for drinking is available in 93% of the primary and 94% of the secondary school surveyed. This is an improvement on the figures from its previous survey in 2019.
However, fruit juice, sweetened milk drinks and sugary soft drinks are becoming increasingly popular among schoolchildren. The Institute for Healthy Living Gezond Leven’s says that schools should ban such drinks except on special occasions such as the celebration of a child’s birthday or a school party. This is already the case in most schools.
The survey found that there is still some work to be done in many schools, especially when it comes to hot meals. Meat still features too prominently on the menu at schools. Less than a third of schools offer meat substitutes at least once a week.
Too many chips, too few vegetables
Many schools aren’t doing well when it comes to vegetables either. The Institute for Health Living’s Laura Vandeweghe told VRT News that "We recommend providing a full portion of vegetables with a hot meal every day. That's half a plate of vegetables. But only half of the schools meet that recommendation." Nevertheless, this is an improvement on 3 years ago. At that time only a third of schools offered a full portion of vegetables.
Meanwhile, the chip pan is still being used far too often in the kitchens of the region’s schools. Almost two-thirds of secondary schools offer a school dinner with chips or potato croquettes at least once a week.
Sitting still too much
The survey also found that while pupils in our schools perform well when it comes to mental well-being this is much less the case when it comes exercise. The survey concludes that pupils aren’t given enough encouragement to exercise between lessons. In secondary education, barely a quarter of schools pay sufficient attention to this.