Sustain believes the expansion would mean the UK farming industry could be supported while more children could be fed fresh, delicious, and seasonal home-grown fruit and vegetables. According to Sustain only half of the apples come from the UK, and none of the pears or tomatoes are domestically sourced.
A spokesperson for Sustain said: “Obesity is rising amongst primary school aged children and 80% of children are not meeting the NHS advice to eat five fruit or vegetables a day. The SFVS, has been proven to increase fruit consumption among participating children.
“However, this positive impact diminishes after year 2, when children no longer have access to free fruit and vegetables during school hours. By extending the scheme up to year 6, healthier eating habits will have longer to embed and thus persist as children leave primary school.
“You could improve the diets of all 4.7 million state-funded primary schoolchildren and support high quality British farming at the same time, by expanding the scheme and favouring seasonal British produce. The current scheme is heavily reliant on imported fruit and vegetables which have been shown of poor quality in both texture and taste. The higher than average levels of pesticide residues found in the scheme also raise serious concerns about the safety of the scheme's produce.”
To overcome these challenges, Sustain believes four things need to happen:
- Expand the SFVS to cover all 4.7 million state-funded primary schoolchildren
- Embrace dynamic procurement to Favour local producers
- Prioritise domestically produced seasonal fruit and vegetables whenever possible
- Raise procurement standards to minimum L.E.A.F or Organic certifications