Massive investment into fruit for school kids

A new EU programme has been launched to encourage kids to eat fruit at school – promoting healthier eating habits in a hope to fight obesity among young people.

According to figures on the European parliament website, there are around 22 million overweight and five million obese children in the European Union and Europarl attributes this mainly to a reliance on fatty, sweet or salty foods.

Now, the government wishes to plough 90 million euros (£70 million) into giving school kids fruit in the 2009/10 school year.

But there is an argument that that huge figure may not even be enough, with a recent report by Niels Busk calling for the contribution to be increased to 500 million euros (£398 million) for the same period.

The World Health Organisation recommends that children under the age of 11 eat at least 400g of fruit and veg every day and one cheap and healthy way of getting this is to grow your own.

With food prices on the up, getting to work in the garden, conservatory or allotment could be key to keeping kids healthy – and provides a fun and productive way of keeping them busy at weekends and on school holidays.