Tesco extends national Fruit & Veg for Schools programme in NI

Tesco has announced that its Fruit & Veg for Schools programme, developed in partnership with the British Nutrition Foundation, is to be expanded for another year to reach even more schools across the UK.

For the whole of the next academic year (2025/2026), free fruit and veg from local Tesco stores will give children in more than 550 schools a nutritious boost that they might not ordinarily get.

The Tesco Fruit & Veg for Schools programme launched in September 2024 as part of the supermarket’s Stronger Starts funding and community support for children. In Northern Ireland, a total of 20 schools participated.

The second year of funding will continue to be specifically targeted in areas where the proportion of pupils receiving free school meals is above 50%. The focus on areas with higher free school meal participation is particularly important because data shows that families on lower incomes struggle to afford a healthy diet.  

Only 12% of children aged between 11 and 18 are meeting the five-a-day recommendation [1] and for children taking part in the scheme, Tesco expects to see their overall fruit and veg intake increase by 23%, based on the average five-a-day intakes in school-aged children. 

The schools taking part in the scheme will be able to shop for the fruit and veg the school needs in stores local to their school. 

Most popular fruits in year one, were: Apples (225,585kg); Bananas (108,602kg); Oranges (92,597kg); Grapes (39,771kg) and Strawberries (37,735kg). 

Ashwin Prasad, Tesco UK CEO, commented: “Schools have told us what a positive impact the Tesco Fruit & Veg for Schools programme has made on their children, so we are delighted we are able to support even more schools in year two.

“The first year of our programme has been a huge success and by expanding it we can ensure that even more young people in some of the most challenged communities in the UK get access to more fruit and veg.”

Caitlin Mullan, Teacher at St Therese's Primary School, in Derry, said: “The Tesco Fruit & Veg for Schools programme brought new excitement to breaktime for all children; they helped place orders and had great conversations about their most or least favourite fruit. There have been lots of different tastes and flavours experienced this year. It has also prompted children to budget the money allocated to their class to ensure they have enough fruit for the week, encouraging development of numeracy skills.

“Our children have taken turns in helping to deliver the fruit and sharing it between classes for collection. They have also helped with the preparation of snacks and cleaning up the plates and cutlery used to create them.”

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Elaine Hindal, Chief Executive of the British Nutrition Foundation, said: “Tesco’s Fruit & Veg for Schools programme has helped to improve the diets of our young people by helping them get more of their five a day, try new varieties and develop healthy habits that we hope will stay with them through life. We’re delighted to see the programme expanded to provide daily fruit and vegetables to even more children who might not normally be able to access them.”