Responsible retailing (continued)
Healthy living programs
for children in Europe
Ahold Annual Report 2012 27 Ahold at a glance
Our strategy
Our performance
Governance
Financials
Investors
All Ahold's operating companies have healthy living programs in
place to encourage children to eat and live more healthily. In 2012,
we reached over half a million children in the markets where we
operate. Here, we focus on the activities of our healthy kids programs
in Europe.
In October 2012, Albert Heijn introduced a week-long classroom
initiative known as "Pauzehap Week" to encourage elementary
school students throughout the Netherlands to discover healthy
snacks; 194,044 children took part. Each day, fun and informative
learning assignments were carried out, and educational video clips
were shown. This free classroom initiative was part of "Ik eet het
beter" (I eat better): an umbrella educational program about healthy
eating from Albert Heijn, which focuses on children aged 8-12 in the
Netherlands. During 2012, 374,283 children participated in the
overall program.
In the same month, Albert in the Czech Republic re-launched its
Healthy 5 educational program for the new school year led by the
Albert Charity Foundation. Inspired by Albert Heijn's "Ik eet het
beter," the Healthy 5 program centers around the idea of eating five
portions of fruit and vegetables per day. Children can get involved in
the classroom and learn the basic principles of healthy eating via fun,
interactive activities. The Healthy 5 program has been proving that
healthy food can be fun to children since the project started in 2004.
During 2012, 96,588 children got involved, as the program is being
expanded to students in higher grades of primary schools.
