Students create their own alternative to chips and soft drinks: Poliakhivskyi Lyceum receives a grant to launch the student enterprise SmartFood
Poliakhivskyi Lyceum has 217 students. It is for them that the SmartFood team wants to create a healthy alternative to the usual school snacks — chips, crackers, and sweet carbonated drinks.
With the support of the Platform for Social Change, students turned this idea into a full-fledged model of a school-based social enterprise. The project involves producing natural energy bars, selling them at the lyceum and during school fairs, and directing part of the profit toward charity, student development, and the enterprise itself.
SmartFood is not just about producing energy bars. It is about changing the food culture at school, developing students’ entrepreneurial skills, and creating a functioning initiative that can benefit the lyceum and the wider community.
The problem that started the project
According to the team coordinator, Halyna Volodymyrivna, the students themselves noticed the problem of unhealthy snacks at school. Chips, crackers, and carbonated drinks often appeared in classrooms — products that quickly became a habit but did not help build a culture of healthy eating.
That is why the team decided to create a product that would be accessible to students, healthier than popular unhealthy snacks, and at the same time serve as the foundation for a school-based social enterprise.
“We want our students to develop healthy eating habits. We can start right here at the lyceum and then spread this idea to the wider community,” says project coordinator Halyna Volodymyrivna.
What participation in the programme changed
Before joining the programme, Poliakhivskyi Lyceum already had experience in social entrepreneurship. For three years, a student enterprise had been operating at the school in several areas: making varenyky, baked goods, and beadwork accessories. Part of the products and funds were donated to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine, while another part was directed toward the needs of the lyceum.
But the SmartFood project became a new stage — with a clearer business model, a focus on healthy eating, and a plan for sustainable development.
During the Social Entrepreneurship Bootcamps, the team went from an idea to a structured enterprise model. Students worked on the mission, business model, budget, cost calculations, presentation, and understanding how their product could create value for the school and the wider community.
Work with entrepreneurs and business practitioners also played an important role. Students saw that business is not only about having an idea, but also about responsibility, planning, calculations, communication with customers, and readiness to work systematically.
“The children thought that having their own business was easy and simple. But after talking to entrepreneurs, they understood that there is still a lot to learn and a lot of experience to gain,” says Ms. Halyna.
Grant support as a tool for real launch
The SmartFood team received grant support from the Platform for Social Change. The funds will be used to purchase professional equipment that will allow the team to move from manual test production to a more stable production process.
During the first trials, students made the bars by hand: they chopped nuts, mixed ingredients, weighed portions, shaped equal-sized bars, and baked the products. Without equipment, producing around 40 bars took about three hours. After purchasing the equipment, the team expects the process to become 2–3 times faster.
The planned production goal is to make bars 2–3 times a week, approximately 100 pieces per batch. This means the team will be able to produce around 200–300 bars every week.
For a school-based enterprise, this is no longer a one-time activity, but a regular production process that is expected to involve 15 active participants.
Expected impact on the school
SmartFood has the potential to reach a significant part of the school community. According to preliminary surveys, 73% of students are ready to buy the products regularly. For a lyceum with 217 students, this means approximately 158 potential regular customers.
This is important not only from a sales perspective. This figure shows that students are ready to change their eating habits if they have an accessible and understandable alternative.
The project also creates space for practical learning. Students are not just listening to lessons about entrepreneurship — they are taking on real roles: working with the product, calculating costs, setting prices, taking orders, analysing customer needs, packaging, and communicating.
This gives them experience that is difficult to gain through classroom lessons alone: responsibility, teamwork, financial literacy, public speaking, customer orientation, and an understanding of how an enterprise works.
Social profit model
One of the strongest parts of SmartFood is its well-thought-out approach to using profit. The team already has a preliminary allocation plan:
15% — for charity;
10% — for student motivation: excursions, workshops, souvenirs;
15% — for packaging;
20% — for enterprise development: equipment, repairs, training;
40% — for raw materials: honey, chocolate, nuts, and other ingredients.
This shows that the enterprise will not operate only for the sake of selling a product. It has a social logic: part of the resources goes back to charity, part supports student development, and part ensures the sustainability of the enterprise itself.
In this way, the school receives not just a new club or project, but a model that can sustain itself and gradually develop.
Impact on the community
Poliakhivskyi Lyceum already has experience showing that student entrepreneurship can work not only for the school, but also for the wider community. Previously, the team produced goods that were donated to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and also directed funds toward the purchase of water, medicine, and other needs.
SmartFood can continue this practice. The team is considering cooperation with volunteers, including the possibility of sending energy bars to Ukrainian defenders.
In addition, the project can influence the community by promoting healthy eating. The team plans to hold small information sessions for students, explain why it is important to choose healthy food, and gradually build a new culture of consumption.
The biggest change is in the students themselves
One of the important changes already noticed by the coordinator is the growth of students’ confidence. During the programme, they learned how to present themselves, speak in front of an audience, answer questions, and manage their nervousness.
A particularly important part was a training session with a psychologist, where students did exercises that helped them overcome their fear of public speaking. According to Halyna Volodymyrivna, after that, the students began to act more confidently at other events and present themselves better.
This means that the programme’s impact is not limited to creating an enterprise. Students gain skills that will stay with them in the future: the ability to speak, persuade, negotiate, take responsibility, and follow through on what they start.
Why the role of the Platform for Social Change was key
Participation in the programme was free for the team. But its value was not only in accessibility.
The Platform for Social Change gave the school the structure that is often missing when launching student initiatives: learning modules, mentoring support, work with entrepreneurs, psychological preparation, financial planning, and the opportunity to receive a grant.
Thanks to the programme, the team did not simply “come up with an idea” — they were able to turn it into a clear enterprise model.
“The Platform helped the students find the idea. With the support of mentors, the children came to the decision themselves that they wanted to produce energy bars. Then the Platform helped them develop it further: build it, plan the budget, and understand the whole process,” says the coordinator.
Without grant support, SmartFood would likely have existed only in a very limited format. Due to the high cost of equipment, the team would have had to produce everything manually, in smaller quantities and with much greater time costs. The grant makes it possible to move to a completely different level — regular production, a larger volume of products, and broader student involvement.
The story of SmartFood is an example of how school entrepreneurship can begin with a simple problem: students want fewer unhealthy snacks and more healthy alternatives.
But thanks to the programme of the Platform for Social Change, this idea turned into a functioning model — with a team, a production plan, financial logic, a social mission, and the potential to impact all 217 students of the lyceum.
SmartFood has the potential to change not only what students buy during breaks. The project can also change the way they think: about health, entrepreneurship, responsibility, community, and their own ability to create real change.
