THE SUPPLIER of free break-time fruit and vegetables to primary schoolchildren in Dorset has gone into administration.
G & S Cossey of Bridgwater in Somerset stopped deliveries to infant classes just before half-term.
The NHS – which manages the Government’s School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme – is now looking for another supplier. It could take up to 28 days to find one.
So, when half-term is over, from Monday 1 November, until a new supplier is found, parents of children aged four to six are being asked by headteachers to send their children to school with a piece of fruit or a vegetable.
The aim of the scheme is to encourage healthy eating. (It also gives many small children the chance to enjoy the responsibility of being fruit monitors, and go off from the classroom to return smiling with apples, pears, carrots, bananas, etc).
As well as Dorset, primary schools in Somerset, Devon and Torbay are affected.
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I worked for Local Food Links back in the early days of the fruit scheme (and indeed hot lunches) and was always amazed neh gobsmacked that we were not allowed to use Elwell fruit or other local suppliers. We had to, instead, keep to the government suppliers and often the fruit that arrived was tasteless and of course involved many food miles.