Beit Hanina Secondary School for Girls / Al-Balad Joins Juzoor’s “Nutrition-Friendly Schools” Initiative

Juzoor for Health and Social Development continues to implement the “Nutrition-Friendly Schools” project as part of a vision aimed at creating tangible change in the school food environment. This is achieved by developing school canteens and transforming them into spaces that support students’ health, provide healthy and safe food options, and promote sound nutrition concepts and healthy eating habits in students’ daily lives.

As part of the project’s third phase, the organization is currently working to equip 10 schools through specialized interventions that include rehabilitating school canteens and providing them with the necessary equipment. This enables canteen staff to prepare balanced meals in accordance with food safety standards and healthy cooking and food-handling practices, directly contributing to improved nutrition, enhanced public health, and better academic performance.

In this context, Beit Hanina Secondary School for Girls / Beit Hanina Al-Balad recently joined the project and last week received its school canteen after full rehabilitation and equipping, making it more ready to deliver healthy food services that meet students’ needs.

The rehabilitation included a full renovation of the canteen and the provision of essential electrical kitchen equipment, including a display refrigerator, bread toaster, food storage containers, a fan, a fruit blender, a gas stove, and other necessary equipment.

The project is implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Education and with support from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), reflecting a shared commitment to promoting healthy lifestyles within schools and creating learning environments that enable children to grow and learn better.

The administration of Beit Hanina Secondary School for Girls expressed its appreciation for this intervention, affirming that rehabilitating the canteen and providing new equipment have improved meal quality and strengthened hygiene and safety standards, in addition to increasing the awareness and motivation of staff and students to adopt healthy nutritional practices within the school.

It is worth noting that the “Nutrition-Friendly Schools” project was launched in 2018 and, over two previous phases, equipped 24 schools in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The third phase continues with the equipping of 10 additional schools, as part of ongoing efforts to promote healthy nutrition and create school environments that support students’ health.