Chips instead of peppers, sweets instead of a fresh orange: children often don’t particularly like healthy food. A project run by the District Office aims to make balanced nutrition appealing, particularly to Year 3 and Year 4 pupils in the Tübingen district and their parents. The project specifically targets socially disadvantaged families and families with a migrant background. The aim is also to promote dialogue, mutual understanding and German language skills. The project is called “KinG”. The acronym stands for “Childhood in Natural Health Promotion”.
What happens at “KinG”? The project has several components. During the three-day activity holidays, the children can enjoy many new experiences. In the mornings, they chop and cook together. In doing so, the children learn a lot about healthy, regional and seasonal foods. In the afternoons, they head into the woods, out into the meadows or to the farm. There, the children discover and experience nature and get the chance to be active. On parent-child days, children and parents cook together, spend time in nature and visit farms.
Promoting children’s well-being
What does “KinG” aim to achieve? “The main objectives are to improve the health literacy of primary school children and their families,” says Claudia Nickel in an interview with tuenews INTERNATIONAL. The qualified nutritionist from the district council aims to impart knowledge about healthy eating and practical cooking and kitchen skills, and to encourage the children to be more active.
Experiences in nature are good for the children. Among other things, they promote mental balance and well-being. Furthermore, the project aims to recognise and respectfully incorporate different cultural backgrounds and dietary histories.
Positive experiences in the kitchen and outdoors
What do the children think of the project? The young participants particularly enjoyed cooking and eating together, spending time in the meadow and the woods, and visiting the farm. This was evident from their feedback. As examples of particularly enjoyable experiences, they mentioned discovering things in the woods on their own, making art from forest materials, stroking animals, looking at tractors, or seeing for the first time how vegetables grow in a greenhouse.
How many children and adults took part? In the first year of the project, a total of 281 participants were reached in the district of Tübingen. 126 girls and boys took part in the children’s activity holidays. For the parent-child days, there were 22 adults and 27 children. Furthermore, those in charge place great importance on the further education and training of multipliers. Not only parents, but also teachers and other professionals are “trained to such an extent that the content continues to have a long-term impact in the family, at school and during leisure time”, says Claudia Nickel. 133 people attended the further education and training courses for multipliers.
Registration takes place via the district administration’s digital registration system. In addition, the programmes were promoted through schools, teachers, school social workers, the press, social media and local council newsletters.
You can register online via the official booking system to take part in the KiNG project. Registration for the Kinderaktiv holidays is available at:
https://koala.komm.one/wicket/bookmarkable/de.kdrs.koala.frontend.wicket.buchung.BuchungTerminAuswahlPage?2&type=v&id=6ebf83f5-94f9-42e3-b104-75c7ac9e66f2
For parent-child activity sessions, visit:
https://koala.komm.one/wicket/bookmarkable/de.kdrs.koala.frontend.wicket.buchung.BuchungTerminAuswahlPage?3&type=v&id=c4f9f81b-e270-46fc-8fa3-52c99b8ba03e
For the training courses, visit:
https://koala.komm.one/wicket/bookmarkable/de.kdrs.koala.frontend.wicket.buchung.BuchungTerminAuswahlPage?9&type=v&id=cc15ad3e-4bb5-4b4e-aadb-54296a687d24.
All KiNG events are free of charge.
Further information on the project and an overview of all events can be found on the Tübingen district website:
https://www.kreis-tuebingen.de/,Lde/gesundheit_+lebensmittel/lebensmittel/akademie-zukunftsfeld/projekt-king
The full programme of events for the KiNG project:
https://koala.komm.one/lkr_tuebingen/v/list?10.
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