Parliamentary under secretary of state for schools and learners Lord Adonis has said that the government would like to extend the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme (SFVS), but cannot spare the cash.
He was responding to a comment by the Rt Reverned Kenneth Stevenson in the House of Lords earlier this week.
Stevenson, the Anglican Bishop of Portsmouth, told peers at question time in the House of Lords that 440 million pieces of fruit are given to two million children in 16,000 schools annually, but that the SFVS has not brought about “a great change in dietary habits”.
He asked: “Does that not suggest that the scheme needs to be intensified and extended, both upwards and downwards in the age range?”
Lord Adonis responded: “If resources were available we would like to be able to extend the scheme, but the scheme costs £41 million a year for primary schools and we do not immediately have the resources available to extend it.”
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