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Hasselt - May 2023
JustBite & PXL University College Limburg are joining forces to help students, lecturers and visitors snack in a more nutritious way. By expanding the range on offer and using nudging techniques, they want to help create a more nutritious school environment.
A first for a university college
Until recently, JustBite was mainly active in the business market, offering more nutritious snacks to companies and hospitals. After employees and visitors, the young start-up has now set its sights on students. PXL is the first university college with which they're starting an extensive partnership.
"Every organisation can make a conscious choice to tackle (social) problems. Our eating behaviour is 70% automatic and intuitive, and our environment largely determines what we eat. That's why we're happy to be able to work with PXL to help create a more nutritious snacking environment," says Aitor Somers, co-founder of JustBite.
More nutritious, more sustainable and tasty
Fruit is a perfectly nutritious snack. But sometimes you fancy something else, and that's often where the ever-present ultra-processed snacks come in. They're made to taste good but offer little to no nutritional value.
"And that's the category we want to improve at the university college. By offering nutritious, natural and tasty snacks. The range is 99% vegan, contributing to the plant-based shift and our sustainability goals. The only exception in the range is Kriket, a Belgian start-up that developed a bar based on nuts and cricket flour. They want to make the idea of eating crickets more accessible. Crickets are a smart source of protein and contribute to the protein shift," says Rudy Rampelberg, Head of Department at PXL Catering.
Looks matter too
In the main building, a traditional vending machine will be transformed into an eye-catching JustBite branded vending machine. Stickers on the floor and communication on digital screens will draw extra attention and provide information.
The colourful displays in the student restaurants and coffee bars create more visibility and more opportunities to buy the more nutritious snacks.
Finally, external companies using PXL's facilities for meetings and events will also be able to enjoy more nutritious snack boxes.
About JustBite
Break by break, JustBite works towards a more nutritious world. Together with a nutrition expert, they developed a method to screen every snack individually. This way, they help companies that don't have the knowledge, time or expertise in-house to do this themselves. Their tasty snacks contain only nutritious and natural ingredients. Snacks that are good for you and the planet. JustBite is active in the Benelux, Germany and the Nordics and has already created more than 3.5 million more nutritious break moments over the past 3 years, for more than 2,000 employers.
About PXL University College
PXL University College has the most diverse range of programmes in Belgian Limburg. Within 7 departments and 2 schools of arts, it organises 37 basic programmes: 19 bachelor's programmes (25 specialisations), 2 master's programmes and 16 graduate programmes. With numerous postgraduate programmes, bachelor-after-bachelor programmes, refresher and further training courses, conferences and seminars, PXL University College is a leader in lifelong learning. The 100,000 annual visitors to PXL-NeXT prove this. PXL University College also serves the professional field through practice-oriented research. The 11 expertise centres of PXL-Research are known for their demand-driven, no-nonsense approach. PXL University College works closely with Hasselt University within the Association University-University Colleges Limburg. PXL University College has campuses in Hasselt, Diepenbeek and Genk, and is a second home to more than 10,680 students and 1,243 staff members.