Ditching junk food for a new vending trend (From Your Local Guardian)

Ditching junk food for a new vending trend at Wandle Valley School, Sutton

8:20am Saturday 21st January 2012 in Top Stories By Sophia Sleigh

Pupils at Wandle Valley School have revealed their new healthy vending machine.

Year 7 to 10 pupils from Wandle Valley School launched the new healthy vending machine to their classmates on Tuesday, January 17.

The healthy goodies include fruit juices, water, cereal bars and packets of fruit.

It is all part of a campaign by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) to encourage pupils to eat healthier snacks and meals during the school day.

Wandle Valley is one of 30 schools the BHF is working with to pilot healthy vending machines and one school will win a prize at the end of the school year.

Head pupil Bradley Jewel, 14, said: “We learn about the importance of eating fruit and vegetables and healthy food, but it’s often easier and more convenient to grab a bag of crisps.

“With this new vending machine we will only be able to get healthy snacks and drinks so it will help us to eat the right foods during the day and make it easier for us to put what we learn in the classroom into practice.

“It’s been great fun getting involved in designing the machines and choosing the items to go inside, and hopefully the rest of the school will enjoy using it.”

If successful, the BHF hopes other schools will use their model to set up their own healthy vending machines in the future.

Doug Bone, headteacher at Wandle Valley, said: “We’re delighted to pilot the healthy vending machine.

“The pupils have thoroughly enjoyed working on the project – designing the machine and choosing the items to be sold, and have been looking forward to the machine arriving.”

Visit bhf.org.uk/junkfood.