The Department of Health's Food in Schools Programme includes initiatives to improve the nutritional content of food and drink provided by breakfast clubs, school tuck shops, vending machines and lunchboxes, and a greater availability of water to drink. The pilot projects range in size from ten to 225 schools.
The launch of the projects, which will be evaluated at the end of this year, has been accompanied by statistics showing that nine out of ten children take food to school which contains too much sugar, salt and saturated fat.
Health secretary John Reid announced last week that one million children are now receiving free fruit at school each day and that 77m of new money is being made available to roll out the scheme nationally. It had been operating in four pilot areas with 42m of lottery money from the New Opportunities Fund.
Mr Reid said, 'We said that every child aged four to six would be entitled to a free piece of fruit each school day, and this new funding will deliver on this commitment. The scheme is a key element of our efforts to combat obesity and encourage a healthier population.
'We're delivering action plans on food, healthy eating and physical activity, and we've set the food industry a deadline to outline their commitments to reducing salt levels in their products.'
Over the past decade levels of obesity have doubled among six-year-olds and trebled among 15-year-olds. A survey published last week in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood showed that British Afro-Caribbean and Pakistani girls have an increased risk of being obese, while Indian and Pakistani boys are at greater risk of being overweight than the general population.
Recent research produced by the Kids' Club Network in partnership with supermarket chain Sainsbury's suggested that fewer than three out of ten parents believed their children knew how to eat healthily. But the same survey also showed that eight out of ten children knew that they should eat five portions of fruit and vegetables daily to stay healthy (News, 8 January).
The research also indicated that a child's diet is largely governed by family income and that those from disadvantaged areas have less nutritionally balanced diets and are more at risk of being under- or overweight.
