UK supermarket chain Tesco is expanding its Free Fruit & Veg for Schools programme, doubling participation from 500 to over 1,000 schools from September 2026, with a further doubling planned for September 2027. The retailer has set a target of reaching one million school children with free fruit and vegetables between April 2026 and July 2029. The programme has already delivered over 15.7 million portions of fruit and veg to more than 180,000 children since its launch in October 2024.

As part of the expansion, Tesco is running a promotional mechanism until May 24th, donating £0.01 to the programme for every fresh fruit, veg, and salad product sold in its UK stores and on Tesco.com, up to a maximum contribution of £2.7 million. Prepared, dried, frozen, and tinned fruit are excluded from the scheme. The retailer is also offering free Fruit for kids in-store until May 31st, continuing the initiative across school holidays throughout the remainder of the year, excluding December. Tesco is also offering grants of up to £1,500 per award to support access to fruit and veg for children through a selection process that includes an in-store customer vote and a nationwide recipe competition for children.

Claire De Silva, Head of Communities at Tesco, is among the judges for the competition. “As a judge for the Giant Fruit & Veg challenge, Claire is passionate about finding recipe ideas that will support healthy habits in schools,” Tesco said.