The scheme, being led by DG Agriculture, aims to lay the foundations for good eating habits in youth. The provision of fruit and vegetables will be supported by education and awareness-raising initiatives that Member States are required to put in place.
Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Mariann Fischer Boel believes that the School Fruit Scheme can make a "major contribution to encouraging our young people to eat more of these healthy and tasty products."
Improved nutrition can play an important role in combating the worsening obesity epidemic across Europe, and the WHO recommends a minimum daily net intake of 400 grams of fruit and vegetables per day. The majority of Europeans fail to meet this target and there is a downward trend among young people. The School Fruit Scheme marks a step in the right direction towards easy access to fresh produce, however there are concerns about its implementation. At the launch of the School Fruit Scheme in autumn 2008, Neil Parish MEP said that the funding was insufficient to have a real impact and that increased funds needed to be allocated.
If the European Commission wants fruit and vegetables to replace unhealthy products in the population’s diet, there needs to be a more comprehensive change of policy approach- fresh fruit and vegetables must be cheap to buy and easily accessible for all social groups. This is obviously something that goes beyond the remit of the School Fruit Scheme, but discussions on the future of the CAP post-2013 should address this issue.
Background
The launch conference, held on 15-16 December 2008, brought together all the key stakeholders, and a number of high-level speakers were involved. EPHA attended the conference in order to support this healthy initiative from DG Agriculture, but also to get an idea of how the scheme will be implemented.
Commissioner Vassilliou gave a key-note speech, highlighting the need to bring together different policy strands in order to meet Europe’s goals for nutrition. The ultimate aim of this scheme, she said, is to provide an improved level of health across the Union. By targetting children it is hoped that the promotion of healthy diets at a young age will reduce the likelihood of children developing into obese adults. In this time of economic downturn, Vassilliou reminded the conference that the population is likely to make lifestyle changes in order to accomodate reduced finances. She sees the school fruit scheme as an effective and popular way to instill good eating habits in a new generation despite the economic recession.
Throughout the conference, speakers expressed their belief that schools are the best location for such a project to be implemented. All children, regardless of economic status or background, attend school. Therefore, in a scheme with ambitions of reaching as many children as possible, schools are the perfect environment. However, it must be noted that the responsibility ultimately lies with the parents to provide their children with a balanced diet, the scheme is intended to help parents achieve this.
It was stressed that the scheme is very much needed as fruit and vegetable consumption has been decreasing across Europe. The message was clear- high fruit and vegetable intake can help to prevent a number of diseases. That said, there remains a lack of studies examining the correlation between high healthcare costs and low fruit and vegetable intake.
One of the issues that was raised over the course of the conference was the question of budget. For a real impact on the dietary habits of Europe’s children, every child needs to be provided with fruit on a daily basis. This would require more money. Neil Parish (MEP) said that in order to fund this we needed to locate or reallocate resources ; one suggestion was restructuring the CAP to fund fruit and vegetable production.
One of the speakers at the conference, Lorelei DiSogra, from United Fresh Produce Association, also attended a roundtable meeting organised by the Health and Agriculture Consortium. With her background working on school fruit schemes in the US, Lorelei was able to share her experience of how to best combine key political actors to achieve a policy that is good for public health. For EPHA, her overview of how to engage with policy makers and advocate for public health interests was very valuable.
The roundtable also welcomed a representative from Senator Tom Harkin’s office, Derek Miller- Senior nutrition advisor, US Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. A public health champion in US politics, Senator Harkin chairs the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry who pushed through the US School Fruit Scheme. The two participants from the US were able to give a very complete overview of the situation in the US as regards school fruit schemes. For DG Agriculture, who was also in attendance, the real added value of the US participation was the analysis they could provide of the implementation process. Which schools were targetted, what constitutes fruit, procurement policy, and so on and so forth.
The meeting also revealed the huge health inequalities that exist in the US, when the debate moved on to more general diet and nutrition questions. Currently, 1/10 Americans participate in the Food Stamp Programme, a type of food allowance, and 1/2 expecting mothers or mothers with young infants receive state aid. There is clearly a tremendous poverty problem in the US that has wide-reaching implications for the diet and nutrition of the nation.
How the EU decides to implement the School Fruit Scheme will become apparent shortly, but Derek Miller from Senator Harkin’s office warned that the scheme could become a ’victim of its own success,’ with US already having seen requests for nuts and dried fruit to be included on the list of ’fresh fruit.’
There was also a general consensus among all participants that this should not be the last high-profile policy to attempt to tackle the obesity epidemic. The real battle could begin in 2011 with the review of the CAP on the agenda. This may yet prove a real opportunity to provide Europeans with a more diversified, and healthy food basket, particulary for the lower income population. Initiatives in the US to tackle junk food in school vending machines, the ’Competitive Food Legislation’, shows that there is much to be learnt from exchange of best practice, and EPHA is keen to put this to policy makers in all sectors to make sure that agricultural policy, among others, is in line with the public health interests of the European population.
For More Information
DG Agri School Fruit Scheme Website
EPHA report : Building National and EU-level support for Expanding School Fruit Programmes
