The current status of the School Fruit Scheme in Europe was the main topic for discussion at a recent joint meeting of the Management Committee for the Common Organisation of Agricultural Markets and the Advisory Committee on fruit and vegetables, hosted by the European Commission.
While analysing the initiative, participants noted that the scheme is now well on its way in most member states, reaching some 5m school children across the EU, although some areas still need improvement to increase its efficiency.
'We are pleased to note that such a great number of children were already reached by the benefits of the scheme,' said Philippe Binard, general delegate at Freshfel Europe, whose experts attended the meeting in Brussels. 'Freshfel also welcomes reports from member states that the number of schools and children will still significantly increase during the subsequent years.
'Despite a relatively slow kick off due to the difficulty of introducing such a complex scheme, it seems that the programme is now progressively moving to full speed to enter into a phase of consolidation,' he added. 'Freshfel is also keen to underline that fresh fruit and vegetables are preferred over processed products in most of the programmes. To have children discover taste and texture of fresh produce is really good news.'
This should not be the end of the programme's development, however, with Freshfel keen for further steps to be taken, such as further raising the awareness and communication of the initiative among teachers, school directors, parents and pupils.
'Today, the EC has not yet finalised a dedicated website to promote the scheme,' Mr Binard noted. 'Such a website could be a useful source of information about fresh produce and the programme, as well as acting as a networking platform. While most of the accompanying measures need to be taken at the national or regional level, the Commission has an important communication role to play.'
The meeting highlighted the fact that the efficiency of the scheme could also be further increased if member states and regional authorities sought greater involvement of various segments of the fresh produce sector, easing some of the logistic challenges in reaching out to schools and facilitating the distribution of produce to children.
An EC evaluation of the functioning of the scheme will be outlined in a detailed report due in 2012.
