Tesco is to invest £4m in a new scheme that will provide fruit and vegetables to thousands of young people in 400 schools this year.

The supermarket’s ‘Fruit & Veg for Schools’ initiative, which has been developed in partnership with the British Nutrition Foundation, will provide funding for up to 140,000 pupils to receive at least one piece of fruit or veg a day.

The funding will support pupils in schools where there is a higher-than-average free school meal ratio, and in total will provide around 16m pieces of fruit and vegetables – the equivalent of 110 portions per child on average over the school year.

It comes as research by food waste charity FareShare among 10,000 teachers, found that 28% of teachers across England have brought in food for pupils in the last term, which is up from 26% in summer term 2023.

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Only 12% of children aged between 11 and 18 are meeting the five-a-day recommendation and for children taking part in the scheme, Tesco expects to see their overall fruit and veg intake increase by 23%.

Based on average intakes of these nutrients in children, across the school year, the British Nutrition Foundation estimates this would increase intakes by 7% for vitamin A, 25% for vitamin C, 14% for folate and 10% for fibre.

Tesco chief executive Ken Murphy said: “Our aim is to enable schools to provide enough fruit and veg for every child to have at least one piece every day. Tesco Fruit & Veg for Schools will make a real difference by providing something that young people look forward to receiving every day, and we hope it will be another little nudge to get them eating healthy food.

“We know we can’t change habits overnight, but we can ensure that young people in some of the most challenged communities in the UK get access to more fruit and veg. We want to help them try something new, learn about food and how to prepare and cook it.”