Launching a
Healthy Tuck Shop
in your school
by Seeds for Growth Charity
Supported by
Tower Hamlets NHS Primary Care Trust
2
Launching a Healthy Tuck Shop in your school
Background
This
guide
provides
information
on
The government has established a national
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
advice on experience of supporting the
Heal the year-on-year rise in obesity
formation of school tuck shops and healthy
among children aged under 11 by 2010.
eating projects.
(Department
We aim to provide some
of
Health,
Department
for
useful hints and tips to help other schools
Children, Schools and Families & Department of
gain from our experience.
Culture, Media & Sport)
Seeds for Growth have assisted people to
establish healthy eating projects as social
enterprises and co-ops so these were the
examples that we used when talking to pupils
in schools.
In our sessions we described
social enterprises, co-operatives, Fair Trade
Obesity is now recognised as a significant
problem
given
that
the
majority
of
children who are overweight or obese are
known to go on to become overweight or
obese adults, who are themselves at
increased risk of hypertension, coronary
heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes.
and the reduction in carbon emissions.
In addition, obesity has been shown to
increase the risk of a number of cancers.
Why a Healthy Tuck Shop?
Childhood obesity is a significant problem in
Tower
Hamlets.
Measurement
The
National
Programme
Child
statistics
demonstrate that the proportion of obese
children in Tower Hamlets is considerably
higher than the national average.
Tower
Hamlets has the fifth highest proportion of
reception age children who are overweight
and has the third highest obesity rate of
children aged 4-5 years in the country.
Both
children
and
adults
who
are
overweight or obese have substantially
more psychological problems compared to
the rest of the population, and are more
likely to suffer from discrimination.
Launching a Healthy Tuck Shop in your school
3
Healthy School Tuck shops have a positive impact
on health in both childhood and adulthood.
Why eat more fruit?
Fruit and vegetables form part of a healthy,
Fruit and the other stock can be supplied
via a wholesaler, retailer, supermarket or
4
Launching a Healthy Tuck Shop in your school
balanced diet. It is recommended that
children eat at least five portions of fruit
and vegetables a day. However, many now eat
just 1 or 2 and few achieve over 3 units
regularly.
The daily intake of fruit and vegetables can
reduce the chance of:

Developing coronary heart disease and a
number of cancers, particularly bowel
cancer.

A balanced diet including fruit and
vegetables can help prevent overweight
and obesity in children.

Fruit is a very nutritious snack providing
vitamins, minerals and fibre.

Eating fruit in moderation, as a snack
instead of sugary foods, is the healthier
choice for teeth.

co-operative, and is delivered to the school
or collected on a regular basis. Tower
Hamlets CDA can offer a supply service to
your school.
The shop will need some adult support
(school staff or volunteers) but ideally it
will be almost entirely run by children. It
can operate before school or at any time
during the school day.
The wider benefits
A tuck shop can be tailored to meet
individual
schools’
requirements
and
priorities. Some schools will wish to
organise a healthy tuck shop as a lowmaintenance project that does not intrude
into teaching time. For others, the project
can be a source of wider benefits.
A tuck shop project can be used as:

A practical initiative to support work in
the curriculum on nutrition and to
further the idea of a ‘health-promoting
school’.

A ‘real-life’ source of
supplement
the
maths
curriculum.

An opportunity to develop a wide range
of curriculum lessons.

An opportunity to provide information
about co-operatives, environmental
issues and fair trade.
Eating fruit in childhood can help develop
good eating patterns to be carried
through into adult life.
What is a healthy food tuck shop?
It is a shop set up by members of the school
community (pupils, parents or staff) to sell
any combination of fresh fruit, dried fruit
and fruit juice and healthy snacks to pupils
during the school day.
data
and
to
IT
Launching a Healthy Tuck Shop in your school
5
Stage 1
Planning background considerations
Tuck Shop Demand
How much initial enthusiasm is there among
staff, governors, parents and children?
You need to establish whether a tuck shop
would be welcomed by members of the school
community, and how much practical support
they would be willing to give. You also need
to ascertain the number of potential
customers to the tuck shop.
Market research
We suggest that you support your own pupils
to undertake market research to gauge:  the level of demand,
 the type of fruit and snacks that the
children would buy,
 their spend, and
 the level of commitment from staff,
children and parents.
Who will be responsible?
Is there a member of staff, governor or
parent willing to take responsibility for the
initial planning? It will be necessary for at
least one key adult to take charge in the
initial stages.
However, once the enterprise is established
adult involvement can be minimal. Many
successful tuck shops operating in primary
schools are run almost entirely by the pupils.
Policy on snack foods
What do children currently eat at break
times? Is any food currently sold at school
other than for school lunches?
To run a successful healthy tuck shop, you
may need to address issues such as
children carrying cash or bringing in their
own chocolate and crisps, etc to school.
If this is likely to be problem you could
consider running the fruit tuck shop
before school, or for example collecting
money weekly or half-termly.
Money brought into school
Are there any issues to be addressed if
children bring money to schools in order to
make their purchases?
Location
Decide how to run the tuck-shop. Some
schools use the school hall, a classroom or
a table in the playground.
Links to your Curriculum
Some schools link the tuck shops to
numeracy work, science projects around
nutrition and plant growth, running tasting
sessions, planning geography lessons based
on the fruits country of origin and so on.
You may need to review your policies if a
tuck shop is to operate to maximum effect.
How much fruit to order?
Tower Hamlets CDA can arrange for a
delivery to your school at set times each
week.
We will also help to identify or provide
resources to link the running of the tuck
shop into the school curriculum.
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6
Stage 2
Running a Tuck Shop
Storage
Having decided where to locate the tuck shop
there are other activities to take into
consideration such as storage.
Plan where you will store the stock, some of
which will be perishable. Usually a cool dry
storeroom will be adequate.
Hygiene
Plan who will wash the fruit and vegetables.
Sometimes the fruit or vegetables will need
cutting or preparing in some way before you
sell them.
Ensure that people handing the food always
wash their hands before preparing fruit and
vegetables. An adult must supervise this
work following health and safety guidelines on
preparing food and the use of food preparing
equipment. Seeds for Growth can provide a
guide.
Pricing and Cash
Make up price lists to display around your
school and at the tuck shop. Decide who will
handle the money at the tuck shop.
Rota
It will be a good to rotate jobs giving
everyone a chance to do each of the
different duties involved in running your tuck
shop.
Also make plans for younger children to
become involved and learn what to do, then
when older children move up the tuck shop
can continue to run smoothly.
Sell to make a profit
It is important to monitor how sales are
going. So ensure that the children always
maintain a daily sales record from which
you can analyse sales patterns.
Promote and market the tuck shop e.g.
 two for the price of one,
 loyalty cards,
 free sticker with portion of fruit, etc.
Think of different ways to present the
fruit and vegetables e.g. pick and mix, fruit
kebabs, fruit smoothies, and stocking
unusual or exotic fruit.
Borrow ideas and search the web and tell
other schools about your ideas. Have
competitions for children to design and
make advertising posters. Send letters
home to parents to let them know about
the tuck shop.
Recycle & Compost
Remember to always pick up and collect
litter from your tuck shop.
Check if you need more litter bins.
Recycle everything you can from your tuck
shop.
If you have a composter you can collect
fruit skins and cores to make compost.
Useful Links
Seeds for Growth
seedsforgrowth@co-operation.coop
020 7247 1056
Food in Schools Toolkit
www.foodinschools.org
Food Standards Agency Fruit Tuck Shops
www.food.gov.uk
Launching a Healthy Tuck Shop in your school
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School Tuck Shop Case Studies
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.
School Tuck Shop Case Study 1
The school plays a strong part in the community life and has developed highly effective links with
the other schools engaged in similar activity. This includes the excellent links with a school in the
countryside near London which has given the pupils first hand experience of visiting the
countryside and learning about healthy and sustainable foods.
Where the idea came from?
The idea came from the School Council which is run by pupils from Years 2-6 with 1 boy and 1 girl
as representatives on the council. The council sits about 3 times a term.
What work was done to prepare for the launch?
The children prepared a proposal which they submitted to the Deputy Head who readily agreed to
the idea but had a number of questions. The children compiled a survey to find out what to sell,
how much they would buy and how would they organise money issues.
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.
Support from the school
The school has been very supportive of the Tuck Shop. The tuck shop is being run by a parent
with the help of a volunteer in the sheltered area in the playground. However, the Gifted and
Talented and elder pupils participate in serving in the tuck shop and purchasing food.
Where is the food purchased?
The food is primarily purchased from Sainsbury who provide the produce at discounted retail prices
i.e. “2 for the price of 1” etc. The CDA is looking into supplying some or all of the food.
Role of the pupils.
The pupils are years 3-6 aged 8-11 Key Stage 2. Key Stage1 are already provided with free fruit
and vegetables through government funding schemes.
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Description of how it now operates.
The tuck shop is run 3 days a week Wed, Thurs and Fri from 10.20 to 10.40.
The average takings are £24.00 per day.
Typical Stock Includes:
Raisins 10p
Fruit bar 10p
Raisins 10p
Fruit bar 10p
Yogurt tubes 25p.
Cheese sticks 25p
Bread sticks at 5p.
Fruit salad pots 20p.
Apples, tangerines/bananas 5-10p
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.
Are any changes planned for the future?
More visits are planned to the out of London school. When the pupils went to the school they
loved the outdoor space, gardening and fresh air. As a result they are now trying to get an
allotment.
The next stage is for the children to gain experience of gardening so they can grow
their own vegetables and fruit and set up a Gardening Club.
Good and negative lessons learned.
 A key lesson to pass on is that a dedicated person is required who would be responsible at
the beginning for purchasing, operating and selling in the tuck shop. As the project
develops the pupils will take ownership and increasingly run the tuck shop themselves.

The behaviour in the playground improves when the tuck shop is operating. Children are
better behaved and queue for food in an orderly manner.

Children have increased their responsibility in terms of handling money and improving their
mental calculations. Many of the younger children have had no experience of dealing with
money and saving it for the tuck shop provides a safe environment for them to ‘gain
experience of shopping’.

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.
School Tuck Shop Case Study 2
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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.
School Tuck Shop Case Study 3
Who was involved in setting up the tuck shop?
Some schools in England have set up healthy eating tuck shops in schools using the co-operative
model, being advised by Young Co-operatives, selling only Fair Trade products with a focus on
developing awareness of how this can help to alleviate poverty in the world. This Involvement in a
Young Co-operative provides a variety of learning opportunities – business skills, co-operative and
democratic working.
Description of the tuck shop.
Young Co-operative tuck shops sell food and drink during the school day often during school
break, for the intention of being eaten during the school day,
Who runs the tuck shop?
Young people take control of their own business – selecting and pricing stock, researching
markets, devising promotional materials, cash management and so on. Some Young Cooperatives produce a business plan to set the agenda for their future development. Through Young
Co-operatives young people learn to work with one another. Each member has an equal stake in
the business and an equal opportunity to contribute and make decisions. They run their own
meetings and learn about the wider co-operative movement
What skills or lessons have been learned?
The Young Co-operative programme offers four main packages to schools. Each package
includes a full day training in school for staff and students, Co-ordinators kit containing exercises,
activities, worksheets, case studies and useful advice and the opportunity to design a website
Launching a Healthy Tuck Shop in your school
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School Tuck Shop Case Study 4
Who was involved in setting up the tuck shop?
The school where the tuck shop was developed is in a relatively deprived area and has about 200
children on roll divided into 7 classes. A Healthy Eating committee was formed, comprising children
from the School Council, the head-teacher, two teachers and two school governors, to consider
what should be done to satisfy the criteria to achieve the Healthy Eating Standard.
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.
Description of the tuck shop.
The committee decided the tuck shop would offer the following:
 Fresh fruit; this was to be the same choice as that offered daily to Key Stage 1 children as
part of the national School Fruit Scheme.
 Dry fruit; chosen for sale were banana, sultanas, apricots, dates and papaya.
 Wholemeal toast and butter.
 Fruit juice.
The following equipment was purchased specifically for the project:
 Four 4-slice toasters.
 Air-tight plastic containers to store dry fruit.
 Two sets of storage chests on wheels to keep the bagged dry fruit to sell at break time.
 Electronic scales.
 Measuring jugs.
 Food scoops.
 Plastic cups.
 Paper bags.
Who runs the tuck shop?
Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 children run the tuck shop. Each station was staffed by two children
selling the fruit and one teacher preparing the toast with the help of another pupil.
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.
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What skills or lessons have been learned?
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.
Build Up & Launch
As a way of promoting the tuck shop among the children a special assembly was held to explain
what was going to happen. Also, the week preceding the launch, all classes had the opportunity to
taste and discuss the food that was going to be on offer, thus reinforcing a sense of expectation
and ownership of the project.
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.