Smaaklessen

Smaaklessen is the ultimate teaching package about food for primary schools, in which the teacher mainly asks questions. The pupils arrive at the answer by tasting and experiencing things for themselves. This allows them to learn everything about their food in a playful way. Chef Pierre Wind is the spiritual father of Smaaklessen.

Experiencing food is central to our teaching materials. By tasting, smelling, feeling, hearing and looking, children learn about food in a playful way. This stimulates their curiosity about healthy and sustainable food.

More and more children in the Netherlands are overweight. It is therefore very important to invest in prevention and healthy eating habits at an early age. If children learn what healthy and conscious eating is from an early age, they are more likely to benefit from it for the rest of their lives. But how do you really bring this subject to life? From vegetable gardening to cooking – learning about food is done by doing it. Based on this conviction, Wageningen University & Research launched Taste Lessons in 2006, in collaboration with chef Pierre Wind, Voedingscentrum and the ministerie van Landbouw, Visserij, Voedselzekerheid en Natuur.

Over the years, we have continuously enriched and updated our teaching materials and programmes, but one principle has remained unchanged: letting children discover food with all their senses. This teaches them to make healthy and sustainable food choices, now and in the future.