School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme

The School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme

The School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme is part of the 5 A DAY programme to increase fruit and vegetable consumption.

Under the Scheme, all four to six year old children in LEA maintained infant, primary and special schools will be entitled to a free piece of fruit or vegetable each school day. It was introduced after the NHS Plan 2000 included a commitment to implement a national school fruit scheme by 2004.

Following the success of the early pilots, £42million from the New Opportunities Fund, the largest of the lottery good cause distributors, has been supporting the expansion of the scheme region by region. By April 2004, the scheme was available in the West Midlands, London, the North West, the East Midlands and the North East, covering 1 million children. The Department of Health in January 2004 announced it would take over funding, at a cost of £77million over the next 2 years. The remaining regions of South East, South West, Yorkshire & the Humber, and East of England will join the scheme in Autumn Term 2004.

In September carrots and tomatoes were added to apples, pears, bananas & easy-peel citrus, and so the Scheme’s name has changed to the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme.

Piloting the Scheme

One of the most important considerations in developing the scheme was to make sure that it is as easy as possible for schools to operate. Over 500 schools took part in early pilots of the scheme throughout England in 2000 and 2001.

Key findings of these pilots included:

• 99% of schools thought the reliability of the fruit deliveries was either excellent or acceptable
• 93% of schools thought the overall quality of the fruit was good
• The majority of children were positive about the Scheme
• School staff regarded the Scheme as: a way of improving children's health (99%) and a supplement to children's diets (99%)
• 97% of schools regarded the Scheme as a support to teaching and learning about healthy eating
• Giving the fruit out in individual class groups has the advantage of providing a social time and a time for learning
• More than half of the survey schools (55%) had noticed an improvement in the ethos and atmosphere in the classes involved in the Scheme.

Download The National School Fruit Scheme: Evaluation Summary (PDF, 397K)

NOP Research Study

A Study into Parents’ and Teachers’ Views of the National School Fruit Scheme

As the scheme expanded, the Department of Health has carried out further evaluation. The main objective of this NOP research study was to understand how successful the region-wide pilots were in 2003from the parents’ and teachers’ perspective.

Parents reported that:

• over a quarter of children and their families ate more fruit at home after their school joined the scheme;
• nearly half of all parents questioned think the scheme has made them more aware of the importance of fruit for a healthy diet; and,
• 95% of parents say their child always, often or sometimes ate the fruit provided at school.
• The full survey can be downloaded below.

Download NOP Survey - October 2003 (PDF, 17K)

Evaluating the Scheme

The National Foundation of Educational Research has conducted an evaluation of the Scheme in the North East, where the scheme began in March 2004. It evaluates the impact of the scheme on:

• Children's consumption of fruit & veg
• Children's dietary patterns/nutritional intake
• Children's knowledge, attitudes and awareness
• School catering arrangements
• Classroom teaching on healthy eating

Download an Executive Summary of the research(PDF, 143K)