Tuck Shop Guide
Tuck Shop Guide
Tuck Shop Guide
Supported by
Tower Hamlets NHS Primary Care Trust
Background
2
Launching a Healthy Tuck Shop in your school
establishing your own school based tuck shop. target for obesity and articulated its
The Seeds for Growth charity has based our objective in a Public Service Agreement to
formation of school tuck shops and healthy among children aged under 11 by 2010.
useful hints and tips to help other schools Children, Schools and Families & Department of
country.
3
Launching a Healthy Tuck Shop in your school
Fruit and vegetables form part of a healthy, Fruit and the other stock can be supplied
balanced diet. It is recommended that via a wholesaler, retailer, supermarket or
children eat at least five portions of fruit co-operative, and is delivered to the school
and vegetables a day. However, many now eat or collected on a regular basis. Tower
just 1 or 2 and few achieve over 3 units Hamlets CDA can offer a supply service to
regularly. your school.
The daily intake of fruit and vegetables can The shop will need some adult support
reduce the chance of: (school staff or volunteers) but ideally it
will be almost entirely run by children. It
Developing coronary heart disease and a can operate before school or at any time
number of cancers, particularly bowel during the school day.
cancer.
Eating fruit in childhood can help develop A practical initiative to support work in
good eating patterns to be carried the curriculum on nutrition and to
through into adult life. further the idea of a ‘health-promoting
school’.
any combination of fresh fruit, dried fruit An opportunity to develop a wide range
of curriculum lessons.
and fruit juice and healthy snacks to pupils
Stage 1
Planning background considerations
Stage 2
Running a Tuck Shop
Ensure that people handing the food always Borrow ideas and search the web and tell
wash their hands before preparing fruit and other schools about your ideas. Have
vegetables. An adult must supervise this competitions for children to design and
work following health and safety guidelines on make advertising posters. Send letters
preparing food and the use of food preparing home to parents to let them know about
equipment. Seeds for Growth can provide a the tuck shop.
guide.
Recycle & Compost
Pricing and Cash Remember to always pick up and collect
Make up price lists to display around your litter from your tuck shop.
school and at the tuck shop. Decide who will
handle the money at the tuck shop. Check if you need more litter bins.
Setting up the healthy tuck shops is part of the healthy outcomes for children under Every Child
Matters (ECM) and to the Healthy Eating theme of the National Healthy Schools Programme. It
encourages children to make healthy choices in what they eat and provides an introduction to
developing enterprise in schools.
Initially it was agreed that the children would hand over their money to prevent any problems but
organisationally this provided too onerous and the children now keep hold of their own pocket
money.
Pupils developed their own publicity and flyers which they distributed throughout the school.
Sandwiches are made up selling cheese, tuna and salad on wholemeal brown bread.
Environmental Impact
Eating healthy food and being aware of where fruit comes from is an important environmental
message for the children to learn. This was reinforced by a session led by the Tower Hamlets CDA
on assessing the food miles, carbon emissions and the importance of buying food locally.
Relating to curriculum
The lessons learned in the tuck shop are related to the maths class to ensure that pupils have
practical demonstrations of addition and subtraction.
Leftovers
There is not usually any food left over but there are composting facilities at the school.
The sharing of expertise with a school located in the countryside has been very beneficial in
terms of putting children in touch with a growing environment
It is hoped that some parents will get involved in the Gardening Club and growing food on
the allotment.
At 10.15 every morning a teaching assistant assist supports two pupils to sell individual items of
fruit such as an apple, pear, banana all priced at 20p. We sell on average 8 items per day for
£1.60.
The children love staffing the stall are there is strong competition to do the work.
We train the pupils in terms of hygiene, customer care, handling money, setting up the stall and
storing the unsold fruit.
The creation of a healthy tuck shop was identified as one of the positive action to put in place. The
School Council was asked to create a questionnaire to be sent out to all families to explore their
interest and support for such an initiative.
The response was positive enough for the Healthy Eating committee to decide to go ahead with
the idea and plan the tuck shop.
The fruit shop was managed entirely by the children. Half of the class was involved on a voluntary
basis and on a rota. The two teachers members of the Healthy Eating committee volunteered to
prepare the toast. They had to give up their break time in order to do this.
Timing
The tuck shop took place during morning break between 10.45 and 11.00.
The necessary equipment was set up at 10.40 and put away by 11.00.
11
Launching a Healthy Tuck Shop in your school
The tuck shop provided an excellent opportunity to do some interesting curriculum work. The first
project was the production of the questionnaire. Following this, the establishment of the tuck shop
itself involved some 5 hours of numeracy work by the Year 5 class who was chosen to run the
shop.
A few weeks into the running of the tuck shop the local paper was invited to take photographs and
a very positive article was published.
Evaluation
The tuck shop has been a success from the very first day and there has been great enthusiasm for
the project. The evidence that health and nutrition are related is indisputable and government
initiatives to encourage children to improve their diet are multiplying. Although families have got
the greatest influence on what children eat, schools can set a good example and encourage
healthy eating habits.