What’s the big idea?

• Snacking is not always unhealthy, but unless healthy alternatives are promoted, most snacks tend to be high in fat and salt or sugar.
  
• Tuck shops and vending machines can be useful fundraising sources but this should not be at the expense of children's nutrition.
  
• A fruit tuck shop provides an opportunity for children to eat fruit during the day.
  
• Fruit tuck shops can be run at break-time or as part of before and after school provision.
  
• A fruit tuck shop helps to promote positive peer pressure and general healthy snacking habits.
  
• A fruit tuck shop for key stage 2 children ensures that healthy snacking habits they have developed in earlier years with the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme are not lost.
  

Start from where you are. If you already have a tuckshop you risk a backlash if you remove all the 'favourites' at once and suddenly replace them with healthy alternatives. Take it slowly and get the whole school behind the healthy changes. If you don't already have a tuck shop, it makes sense to start small with maybe one or two fruit or vegetable snacks. It is usually possible to avoid any problems by careful planning.

Do your market research. How much initial enthusiasm is there for the idea from staff, governors, parents and children? How many potential customers are there, what do they want and what would they be prepared to pay? Get children involved in planning the tuck shop and suggesting products. Give thought to what will be done if you are left with too much or too little produce at the end of the week. Could excess be given away as rewards?

Get some willing hands. You need someone to manage the tuck shop, people to wash, prepare and sell the fruit, order produce and bank the money. This may be a combination of children, classroom assistants, office staff, teachers and parents or it may be run on a commercial basis by your caterers. Although it takes some time and effort to set up a tuck shop, once it is running adult involvement can be minimal. Year 6 often take it on.

Find a supplier. You may be able to order extra produce from the same people who deliver for the National School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme. Your catering service may also be able to help. A local greengrocer may be willing to deliver or you may be able to join a veggie box scheme - sometimes slightly more expensive but usually organic and locally produced. If there are restaurants nearby ask where they get their fresh produce from, and you could piggyback on their deliveries. Alternatively, you may, at least initially, identify a member of staff or volunteer who is willing to buy the produce themselves.

Decide how to run the tuckshop. Some schools use the school hall, a classroom or a table in the playground. Some schools run a cash service, others take orders and money at registration and use a token system. Most schools run the tuck shops at break time but some run them before or after school. Don't forget to work out where the produce can be stored, where it can be washed and prepared, and what will happen with the apple cores, orange peel and banana skins.

Promote, promote, promote. Newsletters, posters and assemblies are all good ways to market the snack service. Get children involved in promoting the tuck shop. Make seasonal changes to the produce to keep interest up.

Suggestions for a healthy tuck shop Raw vegetables such as carrot and celery sticks with or without low fat dips Fresh fruit Toast or bread Crumpets Bread sticks Milk Cheese and plain crackers (with no added sugar) Pitta bread Natural yoghurt with chopped fresh fruit Plain popcorn (could be made with mixed spices for flavour) Note that dried fruit, fruit juices and smoothies, while contributing to five a day should not be eaten as snacks because of the sugar content. For an explanation please refer to the Grab 5! Grab 5! Curriculum Pack, ‘Snack Attack!

Some schools will want to organise a fruit tuck shop as an independent, low-maintenance project which does not intrude into teaching time. For others the tuck shop can support wider curriculum work. Sales figures are a good 'real-life' data source to supplement the maths and IT curriculum. Setting up the tuck shop could be put in the hands of one year group with many potential curriculum links. They would be required to carry out the market research, contact suppliers, coordinate, promote the service and monitor sales (i.e. a mini business enterprise). The tuck shop is also an ideal vehicle to explore nutrition issues.

In Brudenell Primary School, Year 5 made questionnaires for the school to find out favourite healthy food choices. The tuck shop was launched during the health week and run by Year 6 as a trial. They served fresh fruit, popcorn and slices of pitta bread. The most popular choices were grapes and kiwis. The least popular were apples. The trial was a success so it was decided to run the tuck shop permanently and, to save time, to shop online. Children are given tokens, bought for 10p, in class so that there is no money exchanged during the tuck shop session.

Fir Tree Primary School get their fruit delivered by the same company that deals with the school meals. Children order fruit during registration each day and give their money (20p per portion) to the class teacher. A child then takes their class's order to the office and the secretary and learning mentor sort out the fruit.

Greenwood Primary School provide free pieces of fruit at playtime to encourage all children to eat at least one 'grab' per day. The staff who are on playground duty organise the preparation of the fruit and the Year 6 children take it to be served. The fruit is paid for by profits made from the sale of toast (also served at morning break). A healthy tuck shop was introduced but the children were not interested in the things we offered, preferring the toast and free fruit.

Hawksworth Wood Primary School describe their fruit tuck shop:

"Promoting healthy eating at play time in our school is a real team effort. Four teaching staff take it in turns to purchase a selection of fresh fruit from the local supermarket, three times a week, spending a weekly total of £90. Each morning, Monday to Friday, at 8.30 the staff room is a hive of industry. A group of support staff are happy at work putting together small bags of cereal and raisins, slicing melon, washing carrots and loading a trolley with a fine selection of apples, bananas, melon, satsumas, kiwi fruit and pears. At 11am the children rush to buy their fruit. It never fails to amaze us how quickly the trolley empties. It is a real success!"

Wyther Park Primary School have their produce delivered by a local wholesaler. The learning mentors designed job descriptions and adverts for a fruit tuck 'shop manager' and 2 'assistants'. Year 6 pupils apply for these jobs and then run the stall on a weekly rota. The children give up their break time to work on the stall and also come in at 8.30am to set it up. They get a free breakfast in return.

Sandford Primary School provide their children with healthy snacks one day a week. Before school starts staff chop at least 5 different fruits and vegetables into small pieces, put them into plastic beakers and then sell them for 10p a portion. Approximately 90% of the school children buy the snacks and the staff also partake. Class records are kept and when the class has bought 50 healthy snacks they get a fruit reward. Fruit rewards are paid for by the takings from a toast club. The school Grab 5! co-ordinator concludes:

"We take about 45 minutes preparation time each week and for shopping and washing up the beakers but we feel, because of the impact on our pupils and their enthusiasm, it is worthwhile".

Salisbury Road Junior School was donated bananas by the Plymouth South West Cooperative Society during the pilot phase of Grab 5!. They set up a promotion called 'Lets go bananas!' giving a free banana to children every Friday.

More Information Food in Schools Toolkit - practical guidance on healthy tuck shops and other food in schools activities. Available from www.foodinschools.org Fruit Tuck Shops in Primary Schools is a booklet published by Food Standards Agency (Wales). For a free copy contact 0845 606 0667 or download it from www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/fruittuckwales.pdf in English or in Welsh version: www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/fruitwalesw Info bank 1: Get your hands on some fruit and veg, info bank 2: Get your hands on some funding, info bank 3: Healthy eating guidelines, info bank 6: Stay Safe, info bank 7: Make a publicity splash, info bank 8: Do a survey, info bank 13: Buy local produce.