SCHOOL SCHEME - introduction and background - Technical Assistance for Development of a Strategy for Alignment with Common Market Organisation (CMO) Requirements TR2014/AG/10-A1-01/001 This Project is co-financed by the European Union and the Republic of Turkey SCHOOL SCHEME - introduction and background - Ankara, 25th of June, 2018

School scheme Background

School scheme EU School scheme has been implemented from 2017/2018 school year as a continuation of former EU: School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme and School Milk Scheme benefiting from gained experiences and the best practices

School scheme at a glance Exceptional CAP scheme - focused on children, promoting healthy diet Aimed at: increasing consumption of fruit and vegetables and milk products among children preventing obesity and diet-related diseases restoring link to agriculture Multi-sectoral cooperation: involving agriculture, public health and education sectors

School scheme - addressed to fight different issues: Increasing number of children suffering from overweight, obesity and diet-related diseases Decreasing consumption of fruit, vegetables and milk products in EU (below levels recommended by experts) Why it is so important to intervene among children? Dietary habits created in a childhood usually last for the whole adult life

Multi-sectoral cooperation EU law National law National Strategy Multi-sectoral cooperation: agriculture, education and public health

Multi-sectoral cooperation Multi-sectoral cooperation and consultations with other sectors are necessary at preparatory and implementation stages! education sector (choosing of target group of children, the most convenient way of distribution, accompanying measures…) public health (selection of products, target group …) and also: producers/distributors parents

Lessons learned from former school schemes Educational activities: Provisions of products is not enough to change children eating habits – educational activities are the key to success Flexibility: Different Member States = different needs and local circumstances Make it as easy as possible for schools and attractive for children: Products free of charge Selection of products easy for storage and transport vs healt benefits (for example pasteurised milk vs uht milk) Simple procedures Diversity of products

LegislatIVE framework School scheme LegislatIVE framework

Flexibility: the general approach is Member State decides EC sets general rules for the scheme, common for each Member States Nevertheless each Member State has a lot of flexibility in designing the scheme and having in mind local circumstances decides on its own on scheme key elements as: products beneficiaries aid applicants way of implementation In each Member State School scheme is different!

Legislative framework EU regulation: Horizontal general rules for all Member States (Reg. (EU) 2016/795, Reg. (EU), Reg. 2017/39, Reg. 2017/39) National Strategy: Member State wishing to participate in the scheme should prepare National Strategy covering six school years, determining problems, priorities, objectives, main rules and assumptions (target group, products distributed, national top up etc.) National law: Deliveries of product – issued by Minister of Agriculture Educational measures – issued by Minister of National Education

MAIN RULES AT THE EU LEVEL School scheme MAIN RULES AT THE EU LEVEL

Scope of the scheme Deliveries of fruit, vegetables and milk products to children in educational establishments Accompanying educational measures on healthy diet, agriculture etc. Promotional activities Evaluation and monitoring

Fresh and not processed products are the priority Eligible products List of distributed products is set by Member State in National Strategy National authorities responsible for health and nutrition must be involved in selection of products Important: Fresh and not processed products are the priority

Eligible products Children may receive in regular distribution: As a priority fresh fruit and vegetables and/or drinking plain milk including lactose-free versions As a supplementing products – processed products without additives to promote the consumption of specific products and/or to respond to particular nutritional needs of children: From fruit and vegetables (for example juices) From milk: cheese, curd, yoghurt and other fermented or acidified milk products without added flavouring, fruit, nuts or cocoa

Eligible products Additionally if it is necessary for the attainment of the objectives of the school scheme and the goals stated in the Strategy – processed, fermented or not, milk products with additives (cocoa, with fruit juice, naturally flavoured or non-flavoured) Category I (milk component shall not be lower than 90% by weight) Category II (milk component shall not be lower than 75% by weight) EU aid shall be paid only for the milk component of this processed products

Products distributed Products distributed under the school scheme shall not contain added: sugars salt fat sweeteners artificial flavour enhancers E 620 to E 650 as defined in Reg. No 1333/2008 MS’s health authorities may decide that products may contain limited quantities of added sugar, added salt and/or added fat

Accompanying educational measures Key element of the scheme next to the provisions of fruit/vegetables/milk The aim is to increase the effectiveness of the scheme, improve children’s eating habits and restore link with the agriculture May include occasional distribution of different products (also honey, olives etc.) Financed from scheme’s budget (max. 15%)

School scheme Budgetary framework

Scope of the financing Two separated budgets for financing milk component and fruit and vegetables component of the scheme EU financing covers: Provision of fruit, vegetables and milk to children Educational measures (max. 15% of the scheme’s budget) Related costs (max. 10% of the scheme’s budget), including: promotion monitoring and evaluation of the scheme

Budget in the EU Total budget of the scheme is 250 mln EUR, of which: Fruit and vegetables: 150 mln EUR Milk: 100 mln EUR There is no obligatory co-financing from national budget but there is possibility for national top-up (contribution of the sectors, financing from national budget etc.)

Budget in the EU Member State apply every year for allocation of budgets for given school year (until 31 January) Every Member States has guaranteed budget – initial allocations - but can apply for more or less Initial allocation for Poland is: Fruit and Vegetables: 11,640 mln EUR Milk: 10,204 mln EUR

Initial allocations for fruit and vegetables 150 mln EUR

Initial allocations for milk 100 mln EUR

Budget Initial allocations have been calculated taking into account following criteria: Number of children at the age from 6 to 10 in Member State Level of development of certain regions Additionally for milk component following criteria is applied: Historical use of the budget in School Milk Scheme in last three school years Compliance with this criteria will be verified by European Commission in every three years

School scheme National Strategy

National strategy Each Member State prepares National Strategy covering six school years period Strategy defines long term objectives, scope of the scheme, target group, products distributed, delivery system, accompanying measures, etc. When designing the Strategy following issues and factors should be taken into account: current situation and identified needs local environment (dietary patterns, educational system, products etc.) previous experiences and evaluation of schemes implemented so far

Evaluation - why we need it? School scheme Evaluation - why we need it?

Evaluation – way for improvement It is a very useful tool to assess the effectiveness of the scheme, based on results we receive: feedback from the participants information if, and to what extend, the goals of the scheme were reached recommendations what should be changed to make it more effective It’s obligatory part of EU School Scheme and its antecedent School Fruit and Vegetables Scheme

Main goals of the School Scheme evaluation To assess the effectiveness of the Scheme, if it reaches its core objectives or not, in particular how the Scheme influences on: children’s eating habits, in particular consumption of fruit, vegetables and milk products dietary behaviours knowledge on healthy diet benefits

instead of ??? Does the scheme work? 31

SFVS evaluation’s findings and recommendations were taken into account during designing new UE School Scheme implemented currently

SFVS evaluation Results of its first evaluation confirmed that SFVS influenced positively on: consumption of F&V by children lowering the barriers preventing children from eating F/V children’s knowledge on healthy diet dietary patterns of parents, especially their attitudes towards child nutrition

Examples of the results: At the end of the SFS, total consumption of f&v on schooldays in the intervention group was 21% higher than in the control group

Examples of the results: The Scheme proved to have an influence on lowering the barriers preventing children from eating F/V as: ‘schoolmates who don’t eat F/V’ (at the end of the SFS 17% in control group vs. 6% in intervention group) ‘prefer to eat something sweet instead of fruit’ ‘eating vegetables takes too long’

Recommendations after the evaluation High frequency of distribution of products – at least 3-4 times a week (1-2 times a week is not enough to change eating habits) Increase attractiveness for children (variety of products, high quality) Educational measures need strengthening – deliveries are not enough to change eating habits, accompanying measures are curtail! More vegetables in the scheme Children can not take the products home – influence of other pupils is a very strong determinant!

This publication has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union The contents of this publication is the sole responsibility of NIRAS IC Sp. z o.o. and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union