Around half of children who received free school meal vouchers are eating significantly less fruit and vegetables since schools closed for lockdown in March, a report by Northumbria University’s Healthy Living Lab has found.
Before school closures children reported eating, on average, just over one portion of fruit per day. During the three-day reporting period during lockdown, almost half of the children (45 per cent) said they had not eaten any fruit, with the remaining children eating an average of half a portion of fruit per day.
The report, ‘The Free School Meal Voucher Scheme: What are children actually eating and drinking?’, found similar results in the children’s responses on the amount of vegetables they had eaten.
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