EU approves free fruit and vegetables scheme
EU governments today approved a €90m-a-year scheme to provide free fruit and vegetables to schools across Europe.
Minister meeting in Brussels agreed it was a good step to counter obesity.
EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel commented: “Giving kids good habits at an early age is crucial as they will carry these into later life. Too many of our children eat far too little fruit and vegetables and often don’t realise how delicious they are.
“You only have to walk down any high street in Europe to see the extent of the problems we face with overweight kids. Now we can do something about it.”
Under the plan, EU budget funds will be spent on buying and distributing fresh fruit and vegetables. But the scheme will only operate in EU countries where governments are prepared to contribute an equivalent sum to the cost of buying and distributing fresh fruit and vegetables to supplying primary schools in their own country.
Yesterday Euro-MPs voted for a much bigger budget – more than €475 million – to widen the scheme, but the Commission said that was too unrealistic.
An estimated 22 million children in the EU are overweight, more than five million of them clinically obese. And the figure is rising by 400,000 every year.
A Commission statement said: “Improved nutrition can play an important part in combating this problem”.
It went on: “Besides providing fruit and vegetables to a target group of schoolchildren, the scheme will require participating member states to set up strategies including educational and awareness-raising initiatives and the sharing of best practice.”
The World Health Organisation recommends a minimum daily net intake of 400 grams of fruit and vegetables per person, and says the majority of Europeans fail to meet this target – particularly the young.
Two months ago MEPs called for fruit and vegetables to be stocked in vending machines in schools and for school curricula to include information on balanced diets.
