The Healthy Chef project, developed within the framework of PREVENT, transforms nutrition education into an interactive and engaging experience for children. Designed by the PREVENT’s partner Technological Institute of Castilla y León (ITCL), this digital tool combines physical activity, collaborative play, and nutrition learning to encourage healthier lifestyles among students.
Cooking, moving, and learning together
Healthy Chef is a desktop game that turns the classroom into a digital kitchen. Using a simple webcam, students control on-screen avatars through real movements — running in place to collect ingredients, using their arms to prepare meals, and working together to serve healthy dishes. This gamified approach promotes active learning and teamwork while reinforcing the principles of balanced eating.
The game was developed as part of PREVENT’s co-creation process with schools, teachers, and students in Greece. It supports the project’s broader goal of empowering young people to adopt healthier habits through education, technology, and play.
From healthy habits to lifelong prevention
Promoting healthy food choices directly supports PREVENT’s mission to reduce childhood obesity and related long-term health risks, including certain types of cancer. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one in three school-aged children in Europe is overweight or obese, and poor dietary habits — such as excessive sugar consumption and low intake of fruits and vegetables — are major contributing factors. Encouraging healthier eating from an early age can significantly lower the risk of chronic diseases later in life, a priority shared by the EU Cancer Mission and the European Commission’s Beating Cancer Plan.
By engaging children in interactive and nutrition-aware gameplay, Healthy Chef helps establish healthy habits early on. In doing so, it contributes to more resilient, equitable, and prevention-oriented health systems, in line with PREVENT’s vision of empowering schools and communities to make healthy living a natural part of daily life.
