Tesco’s ground-breaking ‘Free Fruit for Kids’ initiative has proved a real hit with children and parents, after the retailer revealed it has given out 20 million pieces of free fruit since its launch in July last year.
CHESHUNT, England, 2017-May-16 — /EPR Retail News/ — The scheme, which was the brain child of Customer Assistant Maria Simpson, launched last summer in over 800 stores across the UK and has seen kids enjoy over six and a half million apples, eight million bananas and five and half million oranges so far.
New research by Tesco and Mumsnet has highlighted the positive effect the initiative has had, with a third of participating parents saying their children have eaten more fruit thanks to the scheme.
The research, which surveyed over 1,400 Mumsnet users with at least one child also found three quarters of participating parents feel the initiative has made their shopping trip easier, with nine out of ten parents saying they feel more positive towards Tesco as a result.
The ‘Free Fruit for Kids’ initiative is just one of the ways Tesco is helping customers make healthier choices.
Earlier this month, Tesco launched its ‘Little Helps to Healthier Living’ campaign, including lower prices on hundreds of products, such as fruit and vegetables, and helpful ‘little swaps’, many of which contain lower levels of salt, fat and sugar than the standard alternative.
Matt Davies Tesco UK CEO said,
“As the UK’s largest green grocer, and with millions of customers shopping with us every week, we have a unique opportunity to help them live healthier lives.
“Our Free Fruit for Kids initiative plays a really important role in this, helping to create healthy eating habits that will stay with children as they grow up. We’re incredibly proud that kids across the UK have already been able to enjoy more than 20 million pieces of free fruit so far”
Justine Roberts, Mumsnet CEO and Founder said,
“Small things – like encouraging healthy eating – can occupy a lot of headspace for parents. Helping children towards their five-a-day while at the same time making the weekly shop less stressful is a thoughtful move from Tesco and one that Mumsnet users have given an unequivocal thumbs up to.
Notes to editors:
- Tesco’s Free Fruit for Kids initiative is part of its continued commitment to making it easier for customers and colleagues to live more healthily. It has already removed over 8,000 tonnes of sugar, fat and salt across a range of 2,000 products including breakfast cereals, yoghurts, and ready meals through the ongoing reformulation of its own label products.
- Tesco was the first major supermarket to comply with the UK government’s sugar levy across all its own label soft drinks. In 2014, Tesco committed to removing sweets and chocolates off its checkouts, in all its stores. In 2015 Tesco announced that all the children’s lunchbox-sized soft drinks it sells would have no added sugar in them.
- Tesco is working with its three health charity partners, the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK and Diabetes UK throughout their health campaign. In May, Tesco colleagues are aiming to move a million miles to support these charities, in the Tesco Million Mile Challenge. Tesco will match each mile with £1, up to a total donation of £1 million.
- Tesco is also be offering customers free diabetes risk assessments and blood pressure check-ups in 375 Tesco pharmacies, and will be supporting 330 Race for Life events across the UK in partnership with Cancer Research UK.
- Tesco has also increased the number of healthier options at Tesco Cafés, making it easier for customers to have an affordable, healthier meal while shopping in store.
- Referenced research is based on an online survey with 1,440 Mumsnet users between 28 April and 8 May 2017.
About Mumsnet
- Mumsnet is the UK’s largest network for parents, with over 10.5 million unique visitors per month clocking up over 100 million page views. It has 170 local sites and a network of 10,000 bloggers and vloggers. It regularly campaigns on issues including support for families of children with special educational needs, improvements in miscarriage care and freedom of speech on the internet.
- A new survey published today by Tesco, reveals that a third of participating parents believe their kids have eaten more fruit as a result of the Tesco Free Fruit initiative.
- The survey, carried out with over 1,400 Mumsnet users with at least one child, also found that three quarters of participating parents feel it has made the shopping trip easier, with nine out of ten parents saying they feel more positive towards Tesco as a result.
- Referenced research is based on an online survey with 1,440 Mumsnet users who had at least one child, between 28 April and 8 May 2017.
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SOURCE: Tesco
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