Tesco Extends National Fruit & Veg for Schools Programme

Children in more than 550 schools will receive a nutritious boost for another year as the retailer anticipates a solid autumn crop of top-quality British apples. 

Image: Tesco

The Fruit & Veg for Schools scheme, developed in partnership with the British Nutrition Foundation, is being expanded to reach more schools across the UK during the 2025/26 academic year, Tesco said in a press release.

During its second year, the funding will continue to be specifically targeted in areas of the country where the proportion of pupils receiving free school meals is above 50%. 

Tesco said the focus on areas with higher free school meal participation is particularly important because data shows that families on lower incomes struggle to afford a healthy diet. 

Only 12% of children aged between 11 and 18 are meeting the five-a-day recommendation, according to results from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey.

For children taking part in the scheme, Tesco expects to see their overall fruit and veg intake increase by 23%, based on the average 5-a-day intakes among school-aged children.  

Last academic year (2024/25), Tesco said around 140,000 children were supported with over 10 million portions of fruit and vegetables. 

To measure the impact of the scheme, Tesco and the British Nutrition Foundation have developed a series of metrics that will be reviewed at the end of the school year in 2025.

Strong Autumn Apple Crop

Apples ranked the most popular fruit among children during the first year of the Fruit & Veg for Schools programme, which is timely news since Tesco is expecting a “great UK apple season” this autumn. 

After bumper summer crops of British strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and cherries, many UK apple growers are forecasting a very strong yield of high quality fruit to land on supermarket shelves during autumn.

In talking with its suppliers and growers, Tesco predicts British apple demand will increase by 10% compared with last season, following near-perfect growing conditions that saw long hours of summer sunshine and plenty of rainfall in recent weeks.

“We’ve had one of the best summers for British grown fruit in recent years with lots of sunshine helping to raise sugar levels and create classic berries and cherries,” highlighted Tesco apple buyer Paul Curtis. “But there’s more good news on the way for the start of the apple season with our growers reporting great quality fruit coming through.” 

Image: Tesco

Fantastic Flavour, Excellent Finish

One of the UK’s biggest apple growers, Adrian Scripps, based near Tonbridge in Kent said the excellent growing conditions have resulted in one of the best quality crops in recent years. 

The company said that the warmer weather in the six to eight weeks after the apple crop had bloomed was particularly beneficial in producing classic fruit with great skin colour and fantastic flavour. 

“The fruit coming through is very attractive with an excellent skin finish, whereas last season we saw a level of russeting to the skin,” explained James Simpson, Managing Director of Scripps. 

"Overall colour is very good with the varieties now being harvested and this is improving markedly with the later season apples such as Kanzi® and Pink Lady®. The cooler nights that we usually see in September will help the fruit colour up. 

“Perhaps most important of all though is that the flavour is fantastic, some of the best we’ve seen in recent years. This is undoubtedly due to the gloriously sunny warm weather seen through late July and August.” 

Promoting Produce Consumption

Tesco said it recorded strong volume growth for many of the UK’s favourite summer fruits, with demand for berries up 10% against the same period last year, while cherries were up by 35%.

The demand for more fruit follows Tesco’s drive to help UK shoppers achieve more of the 5-a-day target. 

With the latest data indicating that less than 1 in 5 people in the UK manage to eat enough fruit and vegetables, Tesco launched a campaign during August to help the nation get more of its 5-a-day.

Families were offered personalised Clubcard rewards on fruit and veg throughout the summer, with free fruit available for kids in Tesco stores.