Filey Junior School receives donation of over 250 pieces of fruit a week from Tesco

During a regular meeting between the school and their grocery provider earlier this year, headteacher Harvey McCarthy expressed his intention to provide a free fruit tuck shop for the students, and Tesco rose to the challenge.

While key stage one children receive government funding towards free fruit and vegetables during the school day to help them reach their five-a-day, pupils in year three and above receive no funding.

The donation from Tesco allows Filey Junior School to provide fruit at no charge to the students, ensuring no child misses out.

The initiative started in February 2022 and has continued weekly since then.

Mr McCarthy said: “Since starting the Fruit Bar it has gone from strength to strength and is now extremely popular with all the children.

"It ensures pupils are getting an important part of their five-a-day and helps them concentrate in class as they have had a snack between breakfast and lunch.

“The fruit donations from Tesco allow us to offer this provision to the children for free, which ensures that the Fruit Bar is inclusive, and nobody misses out.”

Jenna Grouse, community champion at Tesco Filey Superstore, said: “It’s such a positive thing being able to provide fruit each week to over 250 local children.

"Knowing it has helped set up a great initiative that the school had envisioned with their ‘free fruit bar’ is such a great thing.

"The feedback we get each week expressing how much the children love it is brilliant and makes the heavy lifting all worth it!”

For more information about the work that Tesco does in local communities, go to https://www.tescoplc.com/sustainability/communities/community-champions/