Kokkerelli | Kids University for Food & Health

What Kokkerelli | Kids University for Food & Health does

Kokkerelli (operating as Kokkerelli | Kids University for Food & Health) is an independent Dutch foundation established in 2011 with ANBI (Algemeen Nut Beogende Instelling) status, meaning it operates for public benefit. The foundation is headquartered at Brightlands Campus Greenport Venlo (Villa Flora, Venlo) and employs 11 staff. Its mission is to create a "healthy new generation" by teaching children aged 4-12 that healthy eating can be fun, delicious, and good for them, organized around three pillars: education, innovation, and research.

The organization's core "products" are validated educational programs for primary schools, innovation methodologies for developing new healthy food concepts, and a scientific research program conducted in partnership with Maastricht University's Chair of Youth, Nutrition and Health. Phase 1 (2023) demonstrated feasibility of warm vegetable-rich school lunches and quantified that children consumed 76g of vegetables at lunch versus 8.3g in baseline conditions. Phase 2 (2024) extended the work to study effects on concentration and mood. Crucially, Kokkerelli does not deliver lunches directly — practical delivery is handled by partner TommyTomato, reaching 24,000+ children weekly across 280 schools and 80 locations, with last-mile routing by HealthAngels (75 workers). Deloitte's Center for the Edge collaborated on a 2024 cost-benefit analysis showing a €1bn government investment in healthy school lunches could yield €2.7-4.8bn in savings.

Because the foundation is structured as a non-profit, there is no traditional revenue model. Value is generated through research partnerships, government collaboration, and corporate sponsorship under the ANBI framework. The customer base is multi-layered: primary schools (the delivery beneficiary), Dutch government and municipalities (the policy/commissioning audience), and knowledge institutions (the research partners). The organization positions itself less as a service vendor and more as a public-interest convener whose most important commercial product is the evidence base that justifies a national healthy school lunch policy.

Name

Kokkerelli | Kids University for Food & Health

Legal name

Kokkerelli & Stichting Kids University For Food & Health

Website

https://kokkerelli.nl

Company type

Private

Founded year

2011

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Kokkerelli is a Dutch non-profit foundation that drives healthy eating education for children aged 4-12 through research, validated school programs, and partnerships with TommyTomato (delivery), Maastricht University (research), and Deloitte (policy analysis), reaching 24,000+ children weekly across 280 schools.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Children's Nutrition Education

NAICS

Educational Support Services (611710), Special Food Services (7223)

akta.pro primary industry

Meal Program Compliance & Administration (NSLP/SBP, Reimbursements) (EDAEAEAC)

akta.pro secondary industries

School Feeding & Child Nutrition Programs (BPADAJAD), Child Nutrition & Meal Programs (CACFP/Snack Programs) (EDACAMAA)

Keywords

• Children nutrition education
• Healthy school meals
• Food education programs
• Child nutrition research
• Nonprofit food foundation

Headquarters

HQ city

Venlo

HQ country

Netherlands

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Foundation/ANBI Structure: Kokkerelli is an independent foundation with ANBI (Algemeen Nut Beogende Instelling) status, meaning it operates for public benefit. The organization generates value through research partnerships, government collaboration, and corporate sponsorship rather than direct product revenue.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Kokkerelli delivers evidence-based educational programs, research, and innovation methodologies that help primary-school children in the Netherlands develop healthy eating habits. Its flagship scientific work is the Healthy School Lunch Research Program, conducted with Maastricht University, which studies the impact of warm vegetable-rich school lunches on children's vegetable consumption, concentration, and mood. Programs are deployed in collaboration with schools, municipalities, government bodies, and food-sector partners such as TommyTomato, which handles last-mile lunch delivery.

Product overview

Kokkerelli (Kids University for Food & Health) is an independent foundation with ANBI status that has been working since 2011 to create a healthy new generation. The organization operates through three interconnected pillars: education, innovation, and research. Its core offerings include validated educational programs for schools that teach children healthy eating habits, innovation methodologies to develop new healthy food concepts, and a scientific research program conducted in collaboration with Maastricht University's Chair in Youth, Nutrition and Health. The research program includes Phase 1 and Phase 2 studies on healthy school lunches, examining effects on children's vegetable consumption, concentration, and mood. Kokkerelli does not offer a standalone software product but rather provides educational services, innovation methodologies, and research outcomes targeting schools, governments, and the food industry.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Healthy School Lunch Research Program Multi-phase scientific research program developed and conducted in collaboration with Maastricht University's Chair of Youth, Nutrition and Health, examining the effects of healthy school lunches on children's vegetable consumption, concentration, mood, and long-term health outcomes. Findings have been published as reports on the Kokkerelli website and inform policy and program design.
• Educational Programs for Healthy Eating Validated curriculum-based programs delivered to primary schools in the Netherlands that teach children aged 4-12 to experience and learn that healthy eating is fun, delicious, and good for them. Programs are built on the three pillars of education, innovation, and research and are deployed in collaboration with educational institutions, knowledge centers, government, municipalities, and businesses.
• Healthy Food Innovation Methodology Validated innovation methodology used to develop new healthy food concepts for children, deployed in collaboration with educational institutions, knowledge centers, government, municipalities, and businesses to create scalable, evidence-based food innovations.

Quantifiable outcome

• Children ate 76g vegetables during lunch instead of 8.3g, approaching recommended daily amounts
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, core and minor.

• DeloitteflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 23 September 2024Deloitte conducted a cost-benefit analysis (kosten-batenanalyse) of healthy school lunch programs in collaboration with Kokkerelli. The analysis demonstrated that a 1 billion euro investment in healthy school lunches could yield 2.7-4.8 billion euro in savings through reduced healthcare costs and improved productivity. Deloitte's Center for the Edge contributed analytical expertise.
• TommyTomatocoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2020TommyTomato serves as the practical partner for delivering healthy vegetable lunches to primary schools. Since 2020, TommyTomato has been working on making all children vegetable eaters for life by delivering warm lunches to schools. Kokkerelli conducts research on these lunch programs to build scientific evidence.
• Universiteit Maastricht (Maastricht University)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe Chair of Youth, Nutrition and Health (Jeugd, Voeding en Gezondheid) at Maastricht University collaborates with Kokkerelli on research into the effects of healthy school lunches on children. Research conducted in 2023-2024 studied the effects on vegetable intake, concentration, and mood.
• Brightlands Campus Greenport VenlominorOthersKokkerelli is hosted at Brightlands Campus Greenport Venlo, Villa Flora location. This provides office space and access to the innovation campus ecosystem in the agricultural/horticultural sector.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights10 records

Broad incumbents

• Chartwells (Compass Group): Chartwells is the K-12 school food service arm of Compass Group, one of the world's largest contract food service providers. It directly competes in school meal delivery at scale, providing a commercial benchmark against which Kokkerelli's research-backed model is differentiated.
• Eurest (Compass Group Netherlands): Eurest operates contract food services in the Netherlands across workplace, education, and institutional segments. As a Dutch operating arm of Compass Group, it competes in the same institutional food service market where TommyTomato and Kokkerelli operate.
• ISS A/S Food Services: ISS is a major facility services provider in the Netherlands that includes institutional food services. It represents a broader incumbent competing for the same school and institutional catering contracts that Kokkerelli's policy work ultimately shapes.
• Aramark Education: Aramark provides K-12 school nutrition services in multiple markets. It is a broad incumbent relevant for benchmarking what large-scale school food service operators bring versus what Kokkerelli advocates for at the policy and research level.
• Sodexo School Services: Sodexo operates large-scale school food services globally, including in European markets. While not Dutch-specific, it represents the kind of broad incumbent that competes for institutional school catering contracts and adjacent to which Kokkerelli positions its evidence-based advocacy for healthy school meals.

Emerging players

• Voedingscentrum (Netherlands Nutrition Centre): Voedingscentrum is the Dutch government-backed authoritative source on nutrition guidance and education, including for children and schools. It is a comparable player because it provides nutritional education content and policy-relevant guidance in the same domain Kokkerelli addresses.

Direct peers

• TommyTomato: TommyTomato is the operational delivery partner that actually provides warm vegetable lunches to Dutch primary schools, reaching 280 schools and 24,000+ children weekly. It is Kokkerelli's most directly comparable organization because both target the same child-nutrition-in-schools outcome through closely aligned methods.
• JOGG (Jongeren Op Gezond Gewicht): JOGG is a Dutch national program focused on preventing childhood obesity through community coalitions involving schools, municipalities, and local businesses. It addresses the same child nutrition and healthy-weight problem space that Kokkerelli targets, with a comparable Dutch public-health, multi-stakeholder approach.

Regional players

• School Food Matters (UK): School Food Matters is a UK charity advocating for healthy school meals and food education, with similar policy-advocacy and educational-program mechanics to Kokkerelli. It serves a comparable mission in a different geography, illustrating how the model could be replicated across Europe.

Others

• Wageningen University & Research: Wageningen is the Netherlands' leading agri-food research university, regularly publishing on child nutrition and food system interventions. As a comparable Dutch research institution, it is a natural peer for Kokkerelli's evidence-generation role, though it operates at much larger scale.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/kokkerelli
• Facebookfacebook.com/kokkerelli
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/kokkerelli
• Instagraminstagram.com/kokkerelli

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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