Free fruit in schools hits the spot
The success of a pilot “free fruit in schools” project within lower decile Auckland primary schools has demonstrated how children can be guided towards healthier eating habits, says project manager Paula Dudley.
The pilot was run in 20 schools (ten intervention and ten control) during term two of 2004. Early results show 66 percent of the 2000 children taking part ate the free fruit each day, with a further 20 percent eating it three or four times a week.
“Hardly anyone turned it down, and in fact, the kids who the staunchest at the beginning with their ‘nobody tells us what to eat’ attitudes ended up being our most enthusiastic supporters,” says Ms Dudley.
“The pilot has shown that more than half the children in these lower decile schools don’t eat the recommended two serves of fruit a day, but if you offer it in the classroom, the uptake can be quite phenomenal. Availability is the key.”
Ms Dudley came up with the idea after seeing the success of a similar pilot in the United Kingdom. That project has now been rolled out nationally.
Adapting the scheme to New Zealand, fruit was delivered free of charge to ten decile one schools in Auckland, with another ten acting as the control group. Those control schools received free fruit over the following term, as a way of saying thanks.
Varieties included apples, bananas, nashi, pears, oranges, mandarins, persimmon, plums and carrots. The average cost for produce and freight for fruit to be delivered twice a week to one school for one school term was $5,800. Dr Pauline Ashfield-Watt, of Massey University’s Institute of Food, Nutrition and Human Health, undertook evaluation of the pilot.
Ms Dudley says hardly any of the children taking part had ever tasted a plum before. While younger children were the fastest to modify their eating habits, older children also developed voracious appetites, once their initial suspicions were overcome.
As for why the children weren’t eating fruit at home, the reasons were quite diverse.
“Some said it just easier to have a pie, because it filled them up, and in other cases we were aware of peer group pressure, where fruit simply wasn’t cool,” she says.
“And interestingly, Pacific children often said they didn’t want to eat certain fruits associated with where their families came from, because those fruits were considered down-market.”
Ms Dudley says teachers were universally in favour of the project. It made the existing ‘5+ a day’ promotional programme a reality.
“All the teachers wanted it continued - most said it should be rolled out nationally.”
Sadly, fruit intake had decreased to almost original levels within six weeks of the project ending, reinforcing the need for more extended research. Current ideas are either a nationwide pilot, or a small number of schools surveyed over a longer period.
Ms Dudley says having identified the “huge need”, she would now like to see free fruit in every lower-decile school in the country.