Children Bribed to Eat Good Food

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Monday, 07 June 2004

Children are to be bribed to eat up their greens through reward schemes offering cinema tickets for choosing healthy school dinners.

John Reid, the Health Secretary, has been impressed by experiments using a supermarket-style 'reward points' scheme to encourage children to improve their diets and is seeking to expand them.

Pupils in the Coventry project are given merit slips if they choose fruit, brown bread or bran cereals at the school's voluntary breakfast club, which serves meals before school.

They also get extra points for taking part in pre-school exercise classes. Merits can be saved up and exchanged for prizes, from pens and rubbers to £5 cinema vouchers.

Source: Gaby Hinsliff, chief political correspondent The Observer Sunday June 6, 2004