Free school fruit should go

[benandoli]

In these times of cuts the free school fruit should go. Half the time schools dont give the fruit out as intended as they need to spend their time, god forbid, teaching. Fruit often ends up being taken home by teachers before it goes off. It must cost a fortune and I would suggest has little impact on children's long term eating habits. So is this a luxury we cant afford and should therefore be cut?

Well - on the basis that DDs school definitely get all the children eating their fruit snacks, and knowing that many children arrive at schoo without having breakfast (making their fruit snack the first thing they have actually eaten that day) - I think it's something that we should keep going for as long as we possibly can.

dc never ate the school fruit.

I agree it could possibly be better spent on something else. Surely parents can give their child a piece of fruit or a carrot or something for their own morning snack.

Fruit and veg is highest on my shopping list before any other crap. And I have very little spare income, but can provide for my dc when it comes to fruit and veg.

My DS's have always eaten the fruit at break time (particualarly so DS2 who often manages to wangle an extra one or two out of his smaller appetite friends).

I do buy fruit, but I can't afford enough to give all 3 DS's unlimitied supplies of it.

Most of their "5 a day" comes from vegetables.

I reluctantly had to claim the free school meals that I'm entitled to after it was becoming to difficult to manage to provide them.

(my goodness I feel it at the weekends and summer holidays).

There's no way I could guarantee that I would have a carrot (most of our veg is frozen as it lasts longer and is cheaper) or piece of fruit available every day for each of my DS's to take to school - not when they want more fruit when they get home.

DS2 enjoys the variety they get at school, at home it's apples and bananas, and occasionally something else if it's on special offer

DD definitely eats it but we pay £2 a week for it (and milk).

My dd always eats hers and she gets a lot at home too.

I would like to see schools keep it. Maybe I need to see more breakdown on costs and wastage; DC usually eat it.

Teachers don't take it home - rubbish. It gets given out.

I have seen some of it in the bins at end of school week :(.

Surely an important part of the purpose of free fruit at school is to provide for those children whose parents can't be bothered to provide fruit and veg at home and make their kids live off junk food.

I don't think free fruit should go - in fact if anything I think vouchers for fruit, as there are for milk, should be brought in.
It's no good expecting a reception class to start eating fruit (and somewhat unfair for the onus to be on teachers to encourage them to) if they haven't been used to eating it in their early years.

I think free school fruit are great. In ours, what has not been finished in the morning break is given to the children again on the playground outside after lunch and there is no leftover for teachers to take home. In fact quite often children keep comming to ask for more when it is all gone.

"Surely parents can give their child a piece of fruit or a carrot or something for their own morning snack." I suppose most people can but not everybody can in this day in age and I would rather see a few children not entitled to them getting an extra fruit than the ones who most need them not getting theirs IYSWIM. Also, for children who are more fussy when fruit/veg are concerned, to see that other children eat the same fruits and actually enjoy them can encourage them to at least give it a try.

I never saw teachers take it home cornsilk, but they certainly ate it at break in the staffroom. I do remember being very !

Most DC love the fruit, but some, sadly I suspect the ones who aren't used to having fruit at home, throw it away if they can.

We put the spare fruit and veg in a box and all children can help themselves at the end of the day.
Not teachers.

How much DOES it cost? I suspect it's pretty trivial compared to other costs.

Just because parents CAN provide doesn't mean they WILL.

i suppose they won't though TheCoalition, purely because someone else is doing it for them.

And i doubt it is down to ignorance, just cannot be bothered to feed their children healthily.

Some parents and children stick to the safe and familiar as well, and bring a banana every day.
If alternative fruit is available, they may widen their palate.
I know the recommendation here is 5 a day, in some other countries it is 9 or 10.

No, it's because they don't like fruit and vegetables, and so don't see why their children should.

Five a day is a reduction of the amount originally recommended, to make the goal 'achievable'.

Mumi the old milk vouchers for people on low incomes were replaced with more flexible vouchers that could be used on milk or fruit/veg a few years back I think. It's called healthy start.

Haven't had a chance to read this yet, but here's a recently published independent evaluation of the free fruit scheme which may answer the questions above.

From my point of view (reception teacher) we sit the children down in a circle and all eat the fruit together. The children know that they have to eat the fruit unless there's a very good reason. I try to make sure that there's more than one type available if I am able or if there's something that some children will more likely reject (e.g. sugar snap peas, cherry tomatoes, etc). At the end of the day any leftover fruit (because of absent children not because of not being eaten) is given out to the juniors.
As someone who gives out this fruit I believe it to be very valuable and would not like to see it go. It's not about giving out free fruit, it's about ensuring that children are given an extra piece of fruit/veg a day and encouraged to try new ones with their friends. Some children (sadly) do not get much fruit and veg at home.
We did at one point pay extra as a school to extend the fruit to junior children but we had to stop that when money got tight IIRC.

Oh good :) but don't people who never think to buy fruit just use it for milk as they'd probably think to buy it for their cereal and hot drinks first?

Having said, I'm not sure that having seperate vouchers would be the solution - although maybe having basic fruits instead of sweets at supermarket counters may make parents think "I might as well, as it's free".
(Naive, I know!)

Taking fruit out of little ones mouths?? I hardly think so I remember when I worked for the SS whilst visiting a neighbourhood unit I heard of one Mum who had done her weeks shopping and had bout 5 tins of beans and 4 swiss rolls???? that was it foodwise.

For the amount it actually costs I vote to keep it.

In fact lets cut corners more and go back to slates instead of paper and pencils.

The fruit always gets eaten in DD's school - the children all seem to really enjoy 'fruit break'. It wouldn't suprise me at all that there is lots of wastage in other schools, unfortunately there is always wastage in every blanket scheme and, as always, it doesn't really help the children it is meant to help.

I don't know if it should be scrapped though.

Where I work, most of the children come to school without eating any breakfast.

We all sit together to share fruit, drink our drinks and chat. Sometimes I might even eat a piece of the childrens' fruit in front of them!!! Particularily if it is something that they have had little experience of, like when we have sugar snap peas in the summer. The best way of encouraging the children to eat the fruit is for me to eat it too!

At my school they also need this time to develop their (limited) social skills as well as to actually eat.

I wish the scheme would be extended into KS2. The Year 3's really struggle to make it to lunchtime without the fruit that they have been getting for the last three years.

I can't see how the scheme can be expensive, other than transport costs, the pieces of fruit are really small and not the standard that you would see in a supermarket. I would imagine that the fruit and veg sent to schools would otherwise be added to the great food waste mountain.