The Good Food at School (GF@S) model has been developed by the Rikolto NGO in several countries such as Belgium and Indonesia. The method aims at integrating food and education, addressing the composition of school meals and the functioning of school canteens, including practical teaching, learning activities and the active participation of students and teachers, as well as the wider school community. In Vietnam, Rikolto aims to develop a model for the improvement of food safety, hygiene, and balanced diets for school students in Hanoi, to connect healthy food sources and schools, to contribute to policy recommendations at district and city levels and to educate students and stakeholders on food knowledge.
The research “Assessing the Potential Contributions of the Rikolto Good Food at School (GF@S) model to Improving School Meals and Adolescents’ Diets in Vietnam” is led by a consortium of international and Vietnamese research organizations, including the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT (ABC), Wageningen University and Research (WUR), and the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD). The research purpose is to assess the potential of using the GF@S model to provide school meals in junior secondary schools and to improve knowledge, attitudes and practices related to nutrition, hygiene, and food safety among adolescents, parents, and the wider school community. In addition, the research also assesses the quality of implementation of the GF&S model in a sample of schools and the potential of scaling up the model in the future.
Main tasks:
In this research, Mekong Development Research Institute (MDRI) is responsible for the following tasks:
- Sampling strategy development;
- Obtaining approvals from IRB and authorities to conduct the study;
- Designing all study activities, including developing a detailed plan of all field activities, a detailed timeline of these activities, and a detailed list the human resource needs to carry out these activities;
- Recruitment of enumerators/field coordinators for survey;
- Reviewing and providing inputs for survey tools (qualitative and quantitative);
- Participation in programing of Survey CTO entry mask;
- Provision of training for field enumerators/coordinators;
- Organizing data collection in schools;
- Organizing translation from Vietnamese to English and transcription of the interviews; and
- Writing a detailed report covering the survey fieldwork.
Photo source: https://www.tieuhoclythaito.edu.vn/khong-ngung-nang-cao-chat-luong-bua-an-ban-tru-cho-hoc-sinh_820.html