Promoting a Healthy Diet and Lifestyle
initiatives
Missão Continente School Programme
The Missão Continente School Programme remains committed to raising awareness to a balanced diet, a healthy lifestyle and conscious consumption, among children of the 1st Cycle of Basic Education. Topics like adequate daily food choices or adopting a more sustainable behaviour are addressed throughout the school year.
We involve the entire educational community, promoting not only the visit of Ambassadors (Sonae MC employees) to schools with themed, interactive classes, but also the visits of schools to Continente stores. Students and teachers take part in the challenges to put the acquired knowledge into practice, and the schools apply for the prizes.
2019-2020 Edition
A challenging school year!
Students, teachers and parents played a crucial part with all their dedication, especially in the last phase in which study took place at home due to confinement.
Participation
Childhood obesity
How to motivate the school community to change eating habits
The schools worked the healthy food theme throughout the school year, with several activities, and always sought to pass the knowledge on to their families.
Each student created a Healthy Snacks Brochure to distribute to the entire educational community. Together, the students also interpreted a theatre play with a food “Little Devil” and a food “Little Angel”, exploring the importance of making good choices and learning how to interpret labels.
Students started by creating a leaflet with healthy snack suggestions and a weekly snack planning schedule for regular use. The pieces were delivered to the parents / guardians.
But they didn’t stop here and organised a healthy luncheon in the school cafeteria, in which participated children, teachers, educational assistants and parents.
Finally, in terms of physical exercise, they promoted different sports activities throughout the school year, which counted with the participation of families, the City Council and the Parish Council.
Students played different roles, portraying journalists and parents / guardians. They created a newscast with interviews, reports and debates to address the themes of childhood obesity, the importance of a healthy lifestyle, and the role of the families. With the cooperation of a health technician from the Parish Council, they gave life to posters about childhood obesity.
The works demonstrated a clear and profound reflection on the topics and the transfer of knowledge to the parents, in an original and creative way.
Recycling
Breaking the myths of recycling and reinforcing its importance
Already in full confinement, the classes promoted a Quiz through Zoom and developed the newscast “Reciclojornal” among students, parents and teachers.
In addition to the television presenter, several characters emerged to talk about the difficulty of recycling, additional waste during confinement and correct waste separation, and play rhymes about the different materials and recycling points.
In the end, all students were encouraged to create a new toy or object by reusing materials they had at home.
Student Mariana Mineiro and her family created a debate about recycling which culminated in task division among everyone and the responsibility of placing specific waste in each bin.
They developed a poster explaining the project and a handicraft with illustrated representations of the recycling points, in which the family wrote rhymes about each bin.
Student Tiago Martins and his family created a board game named “The environment with... Continente” to explore the correct waste separation.
There were 24 cards with questions. Whenever a player gave the correct answer, he/she would deposit a waste of their choice in the corresponding recycling point.
2020-2021 Edition
What’s different this school year?
In time of pandemic, schools can continue getting involved in several ways designed and adapted to the context.
Activities and challenges’ themes
Regional and local products/dishes and Sustainable shopping
Participation
Virtual sessions
given by our Ambassadors
(Sonae MC employees)
Virtual tour to a Continente store
through a video accessible to the whole school
Challenges
The 3 winning works received prizes to improve their respective schools
Content sharing
Sheets and videos with several activities
Missão Continente Donation 2019-2020: The fight against childhood obesity
Portugal remains one of the European countries with the highest levels of childhood obesity.
One of Missão Continente’s main goals is to promote healthy eating habits. As part of this commitment, it intends to contribute to the national challenge of preventing childhood obesity through the Missão Continente Donation. In the 2019-2020 edition, the programme is directed at schools as well as social sector organisations.
Missão Continente thus reinforced its work on this theme, supporting transformative initiatives with a social impact in Portugal.
How we supported childhood obesity prevention projects
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Projetos vencedores 5 schools
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1 parents’ association
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2 health entities
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2 social sector entities
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Total donations distributed €167,000 raised through Missão Continente’s solidarity gifts sales
Support in project training
After distributing the donations, Missão Continente designed a plan to help implement the projects, with:
Visits
Empowering workshops
Continuous monitoring
Technical support
Who evaluated the projects?
The evaluation was made by a jury composed of entities specialised in the theme:
National Programme for the Promotion of Healthy Eating
Directorate-General of Health
Portuguese Association of Nutrition
Portuguese Football Federation
About the winners
“Vamos a Mexer”
São Gonçalo School Group, Torres Vedras (Lisbon)
€10,000
- Developing awareness actions and training on healthy eating, promoting outdoor activities
- Complementing the offer of sports equipment to increase sports disciplines and include more daily hours of physical activity per student
“Missão vamos à horta”
Viana do Castelo’s Kindergarden no.1 - Parents and Guardians’ Association (Viana do Castelo)
€13,000
- Building a pedagogical garden for children to learn about the origin of food and introduce vegetables and fruits to their diet
- Developing training and awareness actions and workshops to promote healthy eating habits
“Comer e mexer para a Saúde ter!”
Golegã, Azinhaga and Pombalinho School Group, (Santarém)
€22,000
- Installing a physical activity circuit outside the school, with equipment purchase
- Implementing going to school by bike / on foot
- Purchasing materials for playful / theoretical / practical sessions and nutrition appointments
“Super Nutri”
Arcozelo das Maias Kindergarten / Oliveira de Frades School Group (Viseu)
€19,000
Purchasing didactic material and equipment for:
- Food transformation, robots kits
- Workshops, physical and pedagogical activities inside and outside
“MuDança”
Vila Real a Dançar Association (Vila Real)
€20,000
- Adding an individual physical exercise plan to dance for children
- Creating showcooking and healthy eating workshops
- Purchasing equipment for physical evaluation of students and conducting workshops
“Comer com Saúde, Mexer com Alegria”
Cerebral Palsy Association of Vila Real (Vila Real)
€20,000
- Purchasing equipment for rehabilitation and adapted physical activity
- Purchasing computer equipment and material for measurements and screening and for lectures
“A minha lancheira”
Alentejo Health Regional Administration, IP (Évora)
€10,000
- Purchasing equipment for room or outdoor dynamics and didactic material
- Evaluating snacks before and after the intervention
“Alimento Suficiente, Saúde Excelente!”
JI/EB1 School of Conceição (Faro)
€13,000
- Purchasing sports equipment, garden development material, sports and school didactic material
- Purchasing computer equipment
- Training the kitchen Chef
- Organising travels to the pedagogical farm
“Cinfães em forma - Bem comer e muito correr para melhor viver!”
General Serpa Pinto School Group (Viseu)
€20,000
- Purchasing crockery, trays, kitchen equipment
- Purchasing scales and other equipment to monitor BMI (body mass index)
- Purchasing bicycles, climbing equipment and maintenance circuit equipment
“BaLanSa – Bares e Lancheiras Saudáveis”
São Miguel Island Group Unit (São Miguel Island)
€20,000
- Evaluate, monitor and raise awareness towards a better lunchbox composition and a better food supply at schools (bars)
- Perform food education activities to sensitise the school community