Under the auspices of First Lady Emine Erdoğan, the wife of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, by the Ministry of National Education; The “I Eat Healthy At My School Program” was prepared in order to raise awareness of students about healthy eating habits, food safety, food security and the quality of the food offered, to ensure compliance with international standards and conditions, and to encourage physical activity.
As it is known, school age corresponds to an important period in which children's physical, cognitive and social growth and development accelerate, their eating habits develop, and the foundations of a healthy life are laid. The child's knowledge and behavior about healthy eating first develops in the family environment, and then becomes evident under the influence of teachers and environmental factors both in pre-school and school years. Unbalanced intake of energy and nutrients in school age children negatively affects growth and development and school success.
Unbalanced diet and insufficient physical activity pave the way for many chronic diseases such as obesity, cardiovascular diseases, cancer and diabetes in adulthood.
In this context, the Ministry of National Education aims that children from pre-school to secondary education take a step towards the future with confidence; In order for their physical, cognitive, social, growth and development to be balanced, under the auspices of the President's wife, Emine Erdoğan, she implements the I Eat Healthy in My School Program.
Within the scope of the project, students are guided for a healthy life by planning activities in school gardens and corridors and preparing a physical fitness report.
Thus, the spread of healthy eating culture to society is accelerated through nutrition menus and calendar, nutrition in special cases, institutional standardization and certification studies.
With the Reliable Food and Nutrition Management System, schools in 81 provinces are certified and the infrastructure standards of school food businesses are strengthened.
By encouraging organic production in school gardens and creating compost from biodegradable waste, students also participate in the healthy living process.
While students are informed about nutrition, physical activity and healthy food with public service advertisements, website, posters and informative brochures, they are given the right eating habits.
While nutrition and physical activity trainings are given to teachers and students with ÖBA and EBA, special trainings are provided to school canteen staff and all parties involved in the field of nutrition and food. With family awareness trainings organized in public education centers, healthy eating is made a routine of social life.
Thus, the Ministry of National Education sheds light on a happy future by offering nutritional and physical activity recommendations for children with special conditions such as type 1 diabetes, celiac and lactose intolerance.
Within the scope of the program, so far, Pilot School Program Coordinators, Psychological Counseling at Guidance Teachers and Guidance Research Centers, Pilot School Physical Education Teachers, Pilot School Managers, District MEM Branch Managers, District MEM Occupational Safety Experts, Provincial First Aid Training Responsible Managers, Pilot School Cooks, Trainings were given to 7 thousand 594 people consisting of Pilot School Canteen Staff. First Aid Awareness Training was given to 239 thousand 303 students.
In his evaluation of the project, Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer said, “Under the auspices of Ms. Emine Erdoğan; We have prepared the I Eat Healthy in My School Program in order to raise awareness of our students on healthy eating habits, food safety, food security and the quality of the food offered, to ensure compliance with international standards and conditions, and to encourage physical activity. Within the scope of the program, we plan to train 2022 thousand 2023 students and 1.320 thousand 360 teachers in 708 pilot schools until the end of the 36-40 academic year.” said.
Emphasizing that as the Ministry, they provide school meals to 5 million students, Özer said, “While we bring our students together with healthy meals, our students will take a step towards a healthier future with the guidance teachers, school health nurses and physical education teachers assigned to the schools within the scope of the project.” made its assessment.