Helen Keller International

Nourishing Students with Health Nutrition Habits

In Cambodia, Helen Keller International is helping schools make healthy eating the easy choice. The Nourishing Students with Healthy Nutrition Habits initiative replaces junk food with “student-approved” nutritious snacks, labeled with colorful stickers that make healthy options fun and visible.

Teachers, parents, vendors, and local leaders all sign agreements committing to sell only healthy foods on school grounds—ensuring children grow up with better nutrition, stronger learning, and brighter futures.

Why This Work Matters

Across Cambodia—and much of the world—diets are shifting away from traditional, nutrient-rich foods toward ultra-processed, high-sugar, low-fiber products. This fuels what the World Health Organization calls the triple burden of malnutrition:

• Undernutrition and food insecurity – wasting, stunting, and underweight, often coupled with micronutrient deficiencies.
• Hidden hunger – deficiencies in vitamins and minerals such as iron, zinc, iodine, vitamin A, and folate, which weaken immunity and impair learning.
• Nutrition-related NCDs – heart disease, diabetes, cancers, and dementia linked to unhealthy, processed diets.

This initiative addresses all three—tackling the nutrition crisis where it begins: in schools.

Taking on the Healthy Food Challenge

Helen Keller International, together with the World Diabetes Foundation (WDF), has long supported Cambodia’s Ministries of Health and Education in developing nutrition policies and training programs.

In 2022, Helen Keller launched the Healthy Schools, Healthy Snacks, Healthy Futures pilot in three schools under the Healthy Food Challenge by Novo Nordisk and the EAT Foundation, with major support from WDF. The success of this pilot led to the expansion of the Nourishing Students initiative nationwide.

Program Highlights

Scope and Reach

• 150 primary schools across Kampong Thom, Kampong Speu, Takeo, and Kampot
• Reaching more than 76,000 students

Healthy Food Choices

• Snacks lower in sugar and sodium, rich in fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains
• Aligned with the EAT–Lancet Planetary Health Diet and Cambodia’s National Dietary Guidelines
• Vendors revise menus and source healthier ingredients under Directive 18, which prohibits unhealthy food sales in schools

Enforcing Healthy Standards

• 48 formal agreements signed between school principals, commune chiefs, and vendors
• Oversight by local commune authorities ensures compliance and community ownership

Training and Capacity Building

• Teachers trained in calculating BMI and promoting healthy habits
• “Training of Trainers” sessions improved knowledge scores from 51% to 74.6%
• Nationally approved monitoring and evaluation (M&E) tools now track progress

Program Monitoring and Accountability

• Regular school visits and workshops gather feedback for ongoing improvement
• Vendor compliance is checked by principals and commune chiefs
• Baseline data collection began in mid-2024

Plants Earth Life (PEL) and Helen Keller International–Cambodia (HKI-Cambodia) share a strong alignment in their missions to improve nutrition, health, and sustainable food systems. Both organizations focus on advancing access to nutritious, locally grown, and plant-based foods, particularly for children and families in low- and middle-income communities. Through initiatives that transform school meals and promote nutrition-sensitive agriculture, HKI-Cambodia’s on-the-ground expertise complements PEL’s Planetary Health Diet framework. Together, they advance a shared vision of healthier people and a healthier planet through education, evidence-based action, and community-driven change.

PEL’s Role and How You Can Help

Plants–Earth–Life (PEL) is proud to support this innovative, plant-forward approach to ending childhood malnutrition. While Helen Keller International leads a multi-year initiative exceeding $1 million, PEL has contributed $20,000 in this first-year of support PEL (June 2025–July 2026) — a modest but meaningful investment in a program that’s transforming lives at scale.

Your donation can help PEL expand our impact and sustain this groundbreaking collaboration in Cambodia.

• You can donate directly to Helen Keller International via their Cambodia Initiatives Page.
• Or contribute to Plants Earth Life (PEL) to help fund this initiative in Cambodia and other nutrition and sustainability projects around the world. 🔗 (Link to PEL donation page).