Social Demand for Healthy Food for Pupils in Ukraine: Case of Kharkiv Region

Abstract

The relevance of the sustainable development concept is increasing in modern society. The aims of the concept cover a wide range of issues including the issue of healthy nutrition and human health. The issue of healthy food in Ukraine namely a social demand for healthy food and, as a consequence, demand for food system reforming are examined in the article. The focus of the research is on pupils for several reasons: food habits are formed at school age; pupils are a social group, which is especially influenced by media-marketing technologies and the advertisement industry. Mass media marketing predominantly promotes fast food and other types of junk food thus contrary to the formation of a healthy lifestyle. By analyzing the research of nutrition in the schools of the Kharkiv region, the authors conclude that there is a demand for healthy food in schools. Such a conclusion has set the following research question: how this demand could be satisfied. Based on common directions of the sustainable development concept and social cohesion theory the authors propose Innovative Living Labs Implementation. The article is published within the framework of the Fostering the Urban Food System Transformation through Innovative Living Labs Implementation (FUSILLI) project under Grant Agreement No.101000717 (HORIZON2020).