The European Commission hosted last week a joint meeting of the Management Committee for the Common Organisation of Agricultural Markets and the Advisory Committee on fruit and vegetables to evaluate the progress of the School Fruit Scheme. While some improvements remain to be introduced to increase the efficiency of the programme, the meeting noted that the scheme is now well on the way in most of the Member States, reaching 5 million school children across the EU.
Freshfel experts were among the 100 stakeholders from the Member States and the fresh fruit and vegetables sector gathering in Brussels on Thursday 24 March to review the progress of the European School Fruit Scheme (SFS). The EU SFS was introduced at the start of the 2009/2010 school year. It is now implemented in 24 Member States. The phasing in was slow as during the first year of operation only 37,6% of the €90 million available were spent. It is however reaching almost 5 million schoolchildren in 32.000 schools. Most of the Member States are targeting children in the age group of 6 to 10 years old. Philippe Binard, General Delegate of Freshfel, stated: “We are pleased to note that such a great number of children were already reached by the benefit of the scheme. Freshfel also welcomes reports from Member States that the number of schools and children will still significantly increase during the subsequent years. Despite a relatively slow quick off due to the difficulty of introducing such a complex scheme, it seems that the programme is now progressively moving to full speed to enter into a phase of consolidation. Freshfel is also keen to underline that fresh fruit and vegetables are preferred over processed products in most of the programmes. To have children discover taste and texture of fresh produce are really good news.”
While these initial data are positive, it remains clear from the discussion that many steps should still be taken to further increase the efficiency of the scheme. Today, many school teachers or directors, as well as parents and children across Europe, remain unaware of the scheme. The joint meeting made clear recommendations to the Commission and the Member States to take action to increase the visibility and the communication of the scheme. Philippe Binard added: “Today, the EC Commission has not yet finalised a dedicated website to promote the scheme. Such a website could be a useful source of information about fresh produce and the programme, as well as acting as a networking platform. While most of the accompanying measures need to be taken at the national or regional level, the EC Commission has an important communication role to play.” The meeting also discussed the possibility of including the accompanying measures in the overall EU budget to facilitate the communication action at national level.
The efficiency of the scheme could also be further increased if Member States and regional authorities would seek a greater involvement of the various segments of the fresh produce sector.
This will not only ease some of the logistic challenges to reach out schools across the EU territory but also facilitate the distribution of a wide range of diversified fresh fruit and vegetables to children.
Finally, the meeting noted the great support brought to the project by the Associations of Parents present at the meeting and by the European Association of Teachers. Based on some case studies, the attractiveness of the scheme to parents and children is huge and very promising. Philippe Binard said: “Parents are welcoming this initiative as educative for children but also as a very practical step to bring Europe closer to its citizens. Parents and also teachers’ representatives noted however that more remains to be done to raise the awareness of the scheme within the school environment.”
The European Commission is due to evaluate the functioning of the scheme in a detailed report due to be released in summer 2012. All the parameters and progress presented at the meeting are encouraging and will be of great value for the EU institutions as well as health experts to assess the impact of the scheme and secure its continuity. Freshfel will carry on its activities to ensure that the School Fruit Scheme is operating well and remains in line with its initial health objective.
Freshfel Europe is the European Fresh Produce Association, representing the interests of the fresh fruit and vegetables supply chain in Europe and beyond. Freshfel Europe currently has over 200 members, including both companies and associations. For more information, contact the association at info@freshfel.org or visit the association website www.freshfel.org.
Source: Freshfel Europe