Silver at the international SDG Innovation Award
The City of Ghent won silver at the international SDG Innovation Award for its half-and-half meals in schools and childcare centres
The SDG Innovation Award recognises projects worldwide that make an exemplary contribution to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The award aims to highlight pioneers and inspire others to accelerate sustainable development. In the “Cities, Municipalities & Districts” category, the City of Ghent received the silver award for our half-and-half meals in schools, nurseries and after-school care centres. The award ceremony took place on 6 December 2025 in Munich.
Impact of half-and-half meals
Why was Ghent awarded? We submitted our half-and-half meals: an innovative approach in which plant-based ingredients play a much greater role. The results speak for themselves:
• –38% CO₂ footprint since 2018
• High scalability: the concept can easily be adopted by other cities
• Strong impact on health, climate and education
Strong stakeholder model
This project is only possible thanks to a strong stakeholder model: our caterer Culinor Food Group nv, colleagues from various city departments (health and care, environment and climate, childcare, education, etc.), international partners such as Cool Food Pledge (WRI) and the EU SchoolFood4Change project... and, of course, the children themselves.
280 entries
The award is organised by the Senat der Wirtschaft Deutschland and UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organisation). This year, there were 280 entries from 38 countries across five continents. This makes our recognition even more meaningful. In addition to Ghent, cities such as Câmara Municipal de Cascais, Incheon, Seocho-gu and Zichuan District were also nominated.