Ministry to Expand School Fruit Program
Starting next school year, Estonia's kindergarteners and fifth graders will be snacking for free thanks to the expansion of a program that distributes fruit to primary school children, the Ministry of Agriculture has announced.
Launched in 2009 as part of the EU-wide School Fruit Scheme, the program has already been supplying free fresh fruits and vegetables to first- to fourth-graders in an effort to promote healthy eating habits and, as a bonus, increase consumption of domestic agricultural products.
In Estonia, the project is 75 percent EU financed with the remainder paid for by the state.
The new version of the plan, which the Ministry expanded thanks to additional support from the European Commission, calls for 390,000 euros to be spent over the year beginning in August. The number marks an increase of 107,600 euros from the current school year.
Late last year, Agricultural Minister Helir-Valdor Seeder had pledged to ask for the Commission's backing in widening the project as tens of kindergartens around the nation had requested inclusion.
According to the ministry, as many as 342 schools representing 39,549 children took part in the program during the 2010/2011 academic year, a number that represents 79 percent of those eligible.
However, Urve Seedre of the Market Measures Unit at the Agricultural Registers and Information Board, the agency that implements the free school fruit program, told ERR News that the target group is being widened because response to the program has been poor.
Postimees had earlier reported that may municipalities had shied away from signing their schools up to the scheme due to the bureaucracy involved.
Steve Roman