German retailer Rewe is working with the country's 5 am Tag (5 a Day) campaign to help a new intake of infant school pupils to start the academic year in a healthy way by providing them with free gift packs containing fresh fruit, a drink and a number of other useful items.
'Good nutrition is of fundamental importance, especially in childhood, since this is where the foundation is laid for future habits,' commented Lionel Souque, chairman of Rewe supermarkets in Germany and himself a father of three.
With a number of studies identifying underlining the importance of a healthy diet as one of the key factors in helping pupils to concentrate at school, Rewe's new marketing drive is clearly designed to reassure parent shoppers that the retailer is being proactive when it comes to health.
The packs are modelled on the traditional 'cornet' given to four and five year-olds in Germany on their first day at infant school.
Each one contains a kiwifruit with a spoon, an orange, a banana, a pear, an apple and a fruit drink, as well as some cereal and a granola bar.Alongside the food items are a diary, a bookmark and a reflector.
Distribution of the school packs has already begun, starting in Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Hamburg.
The scheme will move on to Berlin, Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen and Lower Saxony at the weekend, before heading to Rheinland-Pfalz, Saarland, Saxony and Thüringen on 17 August.
After that it will visit Saxony-Anhalt, North Rhine-Westfalia and Baden-Württemberg, before drawing to a close in Bavaria on 7 September.
