Oral presentation: Judith Sonder

Many young people in Curaçao experience unhealthy lifestyle patterns and increasing rates of overweight and obesity, partly due to a complex and insufficiently supportive food environment. Although knowledge is an important determinant of health behavior, youth often face structural barriers that limit their ability to make healthy choices. The Food Boost Challenge Curacao therefore focuses not only on youth-led ideas for individual behavior change, but primarily on facilitating them to co-create ideas which improve the food environment of youth in Curaçao for healthier decision-making.

The Food Boost Challenge is a collaborative applied research project conducted by the University of Curaçao and The Hague University of Applied Sciences. The project is grounded in participatory action research and actively involves youth as co-researchers and co-developers of intervention strategies. Through a structured five-phase model (situational analysis, idea generation, co-creation/ prototyping, communication/finals, and implementation), stakeholders from the quadruple helix (academia, government, industry, and civil society) collaborate with the target group.

The study investigates social, economic, and environmental determinants of food choice, including affordability, accessibility, cultural norms, and the availability of food options in and around schools and communities. Based on empirical findings, youth-led solution pathways are co-developed and pilot-tested, including innovative food concepts, improvements in local food access, and the strategic use of social media as a tool for health promotion and social influence.

By positioning youth as active agents in knowledge production and intervention design, the project aims to generate context-sensitive and sustainable approaches to improving healthy behavior of youth in Curacao.