“We see eating vegetables as a subject for children just like maths and language”
Bas Turk, co-founder TommyTomato
Things are going well for TommyTomato. Still TommyTomato focuses on providing healthy lunches in primary schools. But over the years, the vision has sharpened and the activities have broadened. ‘Because if you want to turn all primary school children into vegetable eaters for life, you won’t achieve this with lunch alone,’ says Co-Founder Bas Turk. ‘Just as you teach a child maths, you also teach them to eat vegetables from an early age. Children have to learn to appreciate it.’
TommyTomato bezorgt gezonde, warme maaltijden op basisscholen tot in de klas die alleen nog uitgedeeld hoeven te worden. De meeste TommyTomato-maaltijden bevatten 100% van de aanbevolen dagelijkse hoeveelheid groente, en worden aangevuld met koolhydraten zoals aardappelen, rijst of volkorenpasta. Daarnaast ontwikkelen zij verschillende programma’s en activiteiten die kinderen van jongs af aan een goede en leuke voedseleducatie bieden. ImpactCity partner Stichting DOEN ondersteunt TommyTomato sinds 2021 dankzij de deelnemers van de Postcode Loterij vanuit het programma Duurzaam Voedselsysteem. Het bedrijf opende onlangs een kantoor in impact hub Apollo14 in Den Haag.
TommyTomato delivers healthy, hot meals at primary schools right into the classroom that only need to be handed out. Most TommyTomato meals contain 100% of the recommended daily allowance of vegetables and are supplemented with carbohydrates such as potatoes, rice, or whole-wheat pasta. They also develop various programmes and activities that provide children with good and fun food education from an early age. ImpactCity partner DOEN Foundation has been supporting TommyTomato since 2021 thanks to Postcode Lottery participants from the Sustainable Food System programme. The company recently opened an office in impact hub Apollo14 in The Hague.
New perspective on healthy eating
“When we started a few years ago people were still looking at us strangely and today the subsidy for school lunches has been extended and increased,” Bas starts proudly. As far as he is concerned, the recent crisis has significantly changed the perspective on nutrition. First a Corona crisis in which healthy living and eating became more important and then an energy crisis that made everything more expensive. Children sometimes sat in class without breakfast. Bas: “Healthy eating is higher on the list. Although it remains complicated. 80% of what is on the supermarket shelves does not belong in the five-slice scale.”
Focus on the decision-makers of the future
With its activities, TommyTomato very consciously targets children aged 4 to 12. The age when children learn healthy or unhealthy habits and patterns. Laying a healthy foundation before children enter puberty and resistance begins. Bas: “Of course, adolescents will snack or drink Red Bull. But by normalising healthy eating at a young age, they will eventually fall back into old habits. I am convinced of that.”
Eating vegetables is a skill
Bas and Erik know that a healthy lunch at school alone is not enough to turn a child into a vegetable eater for life. At home, every child eats differently, so if you really want to make a change, you will have to get through to the curious child’s brain. TommyTomato has therefore teamed up with VitaKidz to create S’kool. A ready-made teaching package with which schools -without extra work for the teacher- playfully teach children what healthy food means to them. Bas: “We link the superpowers of vegetables to what children want to achieve. By making it concrete, it starts to mean something to children.”
Measure, weigh, read and eat healthily
Another way to stimulate the curious child’s brain is to teach them at an early age to prepare their own healthy meals. As a pre-schooler, they can learn the basics and, from grade 3 onwards, really get to work themselves. Bas: “We arrange a ‘Soeperchef’ for schools, who teaches children to cook in a playful way. At the same time, other teaching material is also covered. Maths while weighing and measuring the ingredients, reading comprehension while following the recipe, and of course, working together.” For schools that cannot afford to hire a cook, TommyTomato provides ready-made packages. This allows teachers to get started with their students themselves with minimal preparation.
Mission always takes precedence over profit
Currently, TommyTomato works with almost 200 schools. By 2025, the goal is to reach 100,000 children. This is equivalent to as many as 10 million lunches a year (6% of the total market). 100% of profits made from the programmes Soeperchef and Skool go to parents who cannot afford it. To keep everything affordable in the future, growth is necessary. But this should never be at the expense of the mission.
“Our mission comes first and money flows from that and not the other way around. In doing so, we will always ensure that our lunch remains affordable. Even if parents have no or less financial means for this. Partly thanks to government subsidies. The reassuring thing is that so many parties benefit from our success. They find us and want to cooperate, invest or subsidise. Ultimately, we want to make healthy food tasty and educational everywhere. In schools, restaurants or amusement parks. For this, we need everyone. The government, funders, schools, teachers, children and parents. Because as Steve Jobs once said: “Great things in business are never done by one”
