The New Opportunities Fund expanded the delivery of free school fruit to all four to six year olds in the north-east region this month. More than 103,000 pupils in the region will now receive fruit every school day thanks to a £42 million healthy-eating scheme funded by the New Opportunities Fund.
“This is the final region to be piloted by the fund, and all evidence suggests this is a positive scheme that has been given a resounding thumbs up from children, parents and teachers,” says Baroness Jill Pitkeathley, chair of the New Opportunities Fund. “There is no doubt that the risk of developing a serious illness in later life is greatly reduced by having a healthy diet throughout childhood.”
Research from early pilots involving 500 schools, undertaken by the Department of Health (DoH) suggests that more than half the schools involved noticed an improvement in pupils in the classroom with a marked increase in attention levels and ability to settle to work. Parents are also supportive of the scheme with feedback from schools suggesting that three quarters of parents were overwhelmingly positive about the scheme.
Free school fruit has not just made a difference in the classroom. Redbridge, one of the UK’s leading suppliers of produce solutions recently announced it had won the north-east distribution contract for the scheme. It will now supply 118,000 children in 950 schools across the north-east with 600,000 pieces of fruit. This will be achieved from a dedicated centre at its Gateshead depot where it will supply apples, pears, easy-peel citrus and bananas.
Redbridge’s involvement in the scheme has progressed rapidly since its initial involvement in May 2002 when it won the Herefordshire and Worcestershire contract. The north-west contract was won in March 2003, and it recently had the contract extended for a further year. “This contract extension comes on the back of an incredibly successful first year,” says business development director Steve Harrison. “Working from two distribution centres in Wigan and Manchester, Redbridge was originally supplying 1,200 schools and 150,000 school children aged four to seven with a piece of fruit on each school day.
The company now makes 4,000 deliveries per week to supply 900,000 pieces of fruit to more than 175,000 school children. Apples, pears, satsumas and bananas are delivered on a rota basis so children receive a different piece of fruit each day. The scheme has involved considerable investment in vehicles and premises but it is seen as a valuable initiative both to the company and the community.”
Worldwide Fruit has been involved in the scheme from the outset. Marketing manager Robin Barnett says: “As a company responsible for UK fruit marketing we were consulted on how the scheme would be set up initially and have since then been kept in the loop. It is an entirely voluntary scheme, but regional advisors positively encourage the schools to take up the scheme. Apart from increasing children’s consumption of fruit, produce is also used to educate pupils - they are shown how to use the skin and core of apples for composting, and that nothing is wasted.”
Generally, says Barnett, uptake of the scheme is high at around 98 per cent for the regions where WWF is involved. “There is a huge incentive for schools to get involved,” he says. “While the children get access to fruit they are also starting to learn and because of this are beginning to recognise varieties. The government is absolute in wanting the eating experience to be as good as it can be, and the fact that all the fruit reaches the standard of Quality Assured Produce reflects the desire to give the best eating offer possible.”
Capespan, with Fyffes, has been supplying bananas for the last two years and has also had a London contract for apples and pears for the last 18 months.
Capespan’s procurement director Martin Dunnett says: “We are proud to be part of the scheme. We make a positive contribution to its promotion - the initiative is clearly the best way to promote fresh produce to the consumers of tomorrow, with the idea of supplying small fruit for small hands. All the fruit is sourced ethically and it is a great story to publicise - the whole process is something the industry can be proud of. There is a slight bias towards local produce, but sometimes it is not possible to source elsewhere.”
The sheer size of operations in the National School Fruit Scheme means that supplying fruit on a daily basis is not without its difficulties. Graeme Hinchley, commercial director at Redbridge Produce and Flowers, says: “There have been several challenges that Redbridge has overcome. The first has been recruiting the right calibre of staff at key points in the distribution chain; fortunately our nationwide coverage means we are able to ensure delivery of all items. The second has been that sometimes drivers find themselves in very rural locations where the only building is the local school. Redbridge’s logistics software overcomes the problem of navigating in unfamiliar rural areas.”
Petit Forestier offers refrigerated vehicle solutions, and currently supplies vehicles to companies involved in the scheme, including Redbridge and H&B Hawkes. “The vehicles we supply are very flexible,” says marketing manager Rebecca Bailey. “We can offer different temperatures and because of the size of vehicles there is good manoeuvrability which is key when you are getting in and out of schools. We work on the basis of contract hire agreement but we do offer flexibility within that and our customers get the benefit of full maintenance, servicing and support.”
Redbridge is fully committed to supporting the National School Fruit Scheme and the 5-a-day drive. “We take great pride in our service delivery and look forward to continuing to deliver to the thousands of school children in the North West, West Midlands and North East who are benefiting from this scheme,” says Harrison.
Redbridge’s regional 5-a-day co-ordinator for the North West Vicky Johnson adds: “We have had a fantastic response to the National School Fruit Scheme in the North West with a 98 per cent uptake from eligible schools in the area. All these schools are keen to continue with the scheme and have started to look at how they can change other activities in school to encourage a healthier diet for the children. Redbridge, along with the other distributors, have been integral to the success of the scheme and we look forward to working with them for the next year.”
“Getting people to eat more fruit and vegetables obviously makes good commercial sense for Redbridge and the produce industry,” says Harrison, “but it makes great health sense for everyone and anything that encourages young children to eat more healthily is beneficial to us all.
“Redbridge is fully behind this scheme, which not only improves our children’s health but improves children’s knowledge and familiarity of fresh produce so children not only eat the produce, they learn the educational facts as well. We are looking forward to continuing our support of this worthwhile venture,” says Harrison.
Last year Redbridge launched its campaign to spread the 5-a-day programme to independent retailers and caterers through its network of 12 wholesale branches in Bristol, Cardiff, Liverpool, Gateshead, Middlesborough, Glasgow, Hereford, Leicester, Southampton, Hayes, Wigan and Wolverhampton with activities that included:
•5-a-day open days on the market
•5-a-day branding at branches
•Promotional mechanic that included
subsidised product and 5-a-day
promotional material
•Help with creating 5-a-day displays
Independent retailers and caterers were invited to attend open days at the branches to learn more about the 5-a-day programme and to sign up to a collector scheme to encourage them to buy more fresh produce and communicate the benefits of healthy eating to their customers. In total, Redbridge branches had 3,600 promotional kits to give-away and each kit will enable retailers to reach up to 50 consumers - a total reach of 180,000 consumers.
“There are two important aspects to the National School Fruit Scheme,” says director of Worldwide Fruit Robert Balicki. “The first is the importance of healthy eating. If you introduce fruit early enough into children’s diets then it is beneficial to health in the long-term and will reduce disease in the long run. It is not just about cancer or heart disease - we now have obesity in the headlines as well. This is what the DoH is trying to tackle and there is no doubt that if you educate children between the ages of four and six, then you are half way there.
“It is a laudable scheme and in many cases the children are enjoying fruit that they don’t get at home. Consumption in this country is still low compared to Mediterranean countries - so we have to remember we are coming from a low base. We also support 5-a-day and a lot of our customers are signed up to it.
“We procure the produce in the same way as we do for any customer - it is important to us that we do that. It is a complex process with separate tenders for supply and distribution. We supply whatever we can source and also try and use UK produce. Ultimately we are very pleased to be involved and to see it effectively rolled out. I think there was a natural scepticism at the beginning and many were thinking it was just a PR stunt. But it is also very good news for the growers and could potentially take a large part of the crop.”
Prescott Thomas, based in Spitalfields market, distributes fruit in the boroughs of Redbridge, Luton and Waltham Forest. “Initially we joined the pilot scheme,” says managing director Peter Thomas, “but we now have a full-time contract. When you think about the tonnes of fruit that are being eaten by the children every day it’s hard to see any disadvantages to the scheme. It has been an exciting venture for us, I’ve heard nothing but good reports and I think it was a great idea.”
John Finn, a director at H&B Hawkes, concludes: “The National School Fruit Scheme has been very good for us and we are pleased to be involved. It will be nice to see a time when every single child in England of the appropriate age gets a piece of fruit a day.”
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