The European Commission is holding a conference on the EU-wide School Fruit Scheme on the 15-16 December to discuss issues related to providing healthy food to school children.

"The people taking part in the conference have a wealth of ideas about how to design and manage schemes to provide healthy food for children. They have huge amounts of information that can form the basis of a good and open debate," Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said.

"One of the things at the top of my wish list for this conference is the development of best practice models and the establishment of a network of experts," the commissioner added.

In November 2008, EU agriculture ministers reached a political agreement on a Commission proposal for a European Union-wide scheme to provide fruit and vegetables to school children.

European funds worth EUR 90 million every year will pay for the purchase and distribution of fresh fruit and vegetables to schools. The money will be matched by national and private funds in those Member States which choose to make use of the programme, the EC said.

Besides providing fruit and vegetables to a target group of schoolchildren, the scheme will require participating Member States to set up strategies including educational and awareness-raising initiatives and the sharing of best practice.

An estimated 22 million children in the EU are overweight. More than 5 million of these are obese and this figure is expected to rise by 400,000 every year.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!