The evaluation of the School Fruit and Vegetable
Scheme (SFVS) has demonstrated that children ate significantly more fruit
while participating in the scheme. There was some evidence of increased
knowledge of healthy eating, particularly in children from deprived areas.
Commissioned by the Big Lottery Fund and working in partnership with
nutritionists from Leeds University, the National Foundation for Educational
Research (NFER) has been evaluating the impact of the SFVS. The research
included in-depth interviews with almost 100 five to seven year-olds
and explored young children’s diets and their attitudes to food
in a way that no other survey has.
The research indicates the effect of
the scheme on what children ate:
- the children receiving the scheme ate significantly more fruit
- the combined fruit and vegetable consumption of children eating
school dinners was greater than those who had packed lunches
- children who had packed lunches ate more snacks and desserts than
those who had school dinners
- living in areas of high deprivation was associated with lower
fruit and vegetable intake and higher consumption of snacks
and desserts
- girls (but not boys) ate slightly more vegetables after the
introduction of the SFVS
- over the lifespan of the evaluation, fruit and vegetable
consumption of children declined at home and increased
in school.
Attitudes, awareness and knowledge
There was some evidence to suggest that the SFVS had a
positive impact on the attitudes, knowledge and awareness
of pupils.
Interviews with
pupils and staff indicated that the SFVS had encouraged
children to try fruit and vegetables previously unfamiliar to them.
Also, results from
a pupil questionnaire, completed by over 2,000 children
on
three occasions, showed that:
- pupils were more likely to identify the healthiest options from a
choice of snacks, and increasingly so over time
- the increase in the number of fruits tried and liked was greater
for the children in SFVS than for the comparison group three months
after
the introduction of the scheme, though there was no such difference
seven months on. (This may be because the children had already sampled
all
of the SFVS-provided fruits in the first three months of the scheme).
- children living in areas of high deprivation increased their scores
on two of the pupil questionnaire items more than expected, suggesting
that
the impact of the SFVS on these children was higher than for others.
The interviews showed that the SFVS was enthusiastically received
by pupils and welcomed by staff, with very few of the staff’s concerns
about possible burdens and school disruption realised. This was mainly
because staff felt they could implement the scheme flexibly, meeting
their school’s needs in their own particular context. Nutritional analysis
Seven months after the introduction of the scheme:
- older children were eating less sugar
- while younger pupils were eating more fruit and vegetables, their
intake of dietary fibre appeared to have been unaffected
- salt intake remained universally high following the intervention.
NFER’s Sandie Schagen said:
“ The scheme has certainly been
successful in encouraging young children to eat more fruit. There is
no evidence yet of a permanent change in eating habits, but the children
we surveyed had been in the scheme for only a short time. It would be
interesting to follow up children who had received fruit throughout their
time in infant school at a later date, and see what impact this has on
their eating patterns.”
Big Lottery Fund Chief Executive Stephen Dunmore said:
" It is clear
that eating plenty of different fruit and vegetables can help reduce
the risk of some cancers and heart disease, and that healthy eating habits
formed in childhood may help to prevent disease later in life. Pupils
ate more fruit while taking part in the scheme and it also encouraged
them to try fruit and vegetables previously unfamiliar to them."
The final report and summary are available at: http://www.nof.org.uk/default.aspx?tc=493&tct=1&fc=258&fct=1.
News is included
on this website to inform visitors about current health issues, but not
to endorse
any particular view or activity. Material in this news item
was first released by Leeds University (England, UK) on 13th
September 2005. For further information, please
visit
their
website using the link below.
|
