Ensuring people have easy access to low-cost, local fruit and veg is half the battle towards encouraging them to eat their five portions of fruit and veg per day.

At Foodsmiles, of which I am the director, we source a full range of fresh fruit and veg, as well as salad, meat, dairy and bakery products, from local farmers and growers. We distribute through our local network to restaurants, schools, independent retailers and shops in the area. We believe that by sourcing locally and distributing locally, we are allowing more people to access quality, low-cost food, which in turn will help them towards achieving a balanced diet.

Foodsmiles is committed to raising awareness of the importance of eating five portions of fruit and veg a day, especially amongst the regions’ teachers, in order to educate children about the benefits of fruit and veg. We have recently created an education pack, which features the 5 A DAY Just Eat More (fruit and veg) logo, to encourage increased knowledge about fresh food and its healthy benefits among the Key Stage 2 age group. The education pack contains a selection of activity ideas and resources for teachers to use in the classroom. We hope the activities in the pack, which is available free to all schools we deliver to, will help stimulate new ideas for classroom work around the topic of local food, and in turn help raise awareness of 5 A DAY messages and the 5 A DAY programme itself.

We believe that by ensuring both parents and children are aware of the importance of including fruit and veg in their daily diets, not only will they themselves benefit, but local farmers will also be able to continue supplying the best fresh produce available.

Foodsmiles has the continued support of well-known television chef Brian Turner CBE, who actively appreciates our concept that everyone should choose locally produced fruit and veg where they can, to ensure maximum freshness.

We are now working to encourage more consumers to recognise that, in addition to local produce maintaining freshness, obtaining seasonal fruit and veg from closer to home is also kinder to the environment.

As Foodsmiles provides local produce, this helps to cut down on transport emissions and environmental damage and also provides customers with very competitive prices, which in turn encourages them to buy more produce like fruit and veg, which they might find more expensive elsewhere.

Communicating important issues with our customers is a priority for us, which is why we update them via our website on the latest fresh produce news, key messages from the 5 A DAY programme, and the changing fresh produce market.

We will continue to support the 5 A DAY programme and encourage our suppliers and consumers to spread 5 A DAY messages within the region.

For more information, please visit www.foodsmiles.com.

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