Photo: flickr.com

Poland’s school authorities have declared a war on unhealthy eating habits among school pupils. Thanks to EU funding, a National School Fruit Scheme will take off as of the new school year, after a pilot test at a primary school in southern Poland.

Polish pupils will be handed out apples – red and sweet, and not too big, so that a child can take a bite without an effort. The fruit will be washed and packed in foil, says Katarzyna Siemieniec from the Health Association for Sport and Tourism, which coordinates the program. Apples have been chosen because they don’t have to be peeled and their calorie content is not high, compared, for example with bananas.

Apples have also an advantage of being cheap and easily available in Poland. But pupils tend to think of them as naff, compared with chips and sweats from vending machines, which have become a school fixture. The coordinators did their best to pep up the scheme, which came to be called Applemania here.

Apples for the National Fruit Scheme will be supplied by producers who won a tender. The scheme coordinators encourage them to create producer groups, as individual growers may find it too expensive to buy machines for washing and packing the fruit. 

Click on the audio icon to listen to the report by Krystyna Kołosowska.