Bash Street Kids: more practical ideas

• Try to give pupils greater access to fruit and vegetable choices so they can get three of their five portions while they are in school.
• For many children, the tuckshop or a breakfast club could be their first opportunity in the school day to have a portion of fruit or vegetables.
• School lunch could provide the second opportunity, where they might choose two portions of fruit and vegetables, e.g. a vegetable with their main meal and fruit as dessert.

Suggestions for discussion points – these could be written up as overheads or on a board.

• Tuckshop menu – for example, fresh fruit, dried fruit and fruit juice
• Breakfast club – for example, smoothies made with fresh fruit and yogurt, pieces of apple, bananas sliced on cereal and toasted teacakes
• School lunch menu
• Vegetable starter choices such as vegetable soup*
• Choice of a different salad everyday as well as the choice of a vegetable with your main course* – salad choices are lovely and crunchy and as well as helping to keep you healthy, they add texture to your meals to help keep your teeth nice and strong
• Choice of fruit pudding or fresh piece of fruit*

*Message for pupils: These choices should always be available, so if you do not see them, ask. Even if you do not know whether or not you like a particular fruit or vegetable, why not try it? You can always leave it if it turns out that you really don't like it. Then you can try something else another day.

Here are some discussion points around the Balance of Good Health:

• This represents the balance of foods that we should aim to eat to provide ourselves with a healthy, balanced diet.
• The Balance of Good Health shows that people don’t need to give up the foods they most enjoy for the sake of their health – just eat some in smaller quantities or less frequently.
• Remember it's important to eat plenty of fruit and vegetables – at least 5 portions a day (see portion guide). You can choose from fresh, frozen, tinned, dried or juiced. Fruit and vegetables are good sources of many vitamins and minerals, so having lots will help to keep you really healthy.
• Pupils who bring a packed lunch can also get their fruit and vegetables by including salad vegetables such as carrot or celery sticks and fruit in their lunch boxes.
• With the choices available at the tuckshop and for school dinners, the pupils of this school, unlike most other children, can choose 3 of their 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day while you are at school. So if everyone chooses 5-a-day, this school will be a very healthy school.

You could set up a fruit tuckshop in your school selling a range of fruit products including:

• fresh fruit such as apples, bananas, pears, tangerines, kiwi fruit, and pineapple
• dried fruit containing a mixture of apricots, figs, raisins, pineapple, papaya, and banana chips
• 100 per cent fruit or vegetable juice including orange, pineapple, apple and tomato

See the further information section for more advice:

It is a legal requirement to make sure there are fruit and vegetable options available for pupils to choose.

Aim to increase the amount of fruit and vegetables in school meals to an average of 2.5 portions per day per child. School lunch choices could include:

• a daily vegetable soup
• variety of cooked vegetables or a side salad daily, for example, a green salad, mixed salad, sweetcorn salsa, or carrot and raisin salad
• fruit-based puddings (containing at least one portion of fruit per serving) available at least twice a week
• fresh or tinned fruit in juice or fruit salads daily

See the further information section for more advice: