A small health food business is helping to improve the diets of school children by turning the muchmaligned vending machine into a beacon of healthy eating.

The Natural Vending Company in Pulborough was launched in February during Jamie Oliver's high-profile campaign to improve school dinners.

It is run by business partners David Butcher and Sue Scott, both parents, who were determined to widen the choice of food on offer in school vending machines.

The firm provides schools with a range of additive-free snacks and drinks, including organic, fairtrade and locally sourced products, as an alternative to Mars bars and Skittles.

The products are sold in the company's Big Orange Box machines which are slowly starting to challenge the schoolyard supremacy of food giants like Master Foods, Nestl and Pepsi.

Already five schools in Sussex have installed the vending machines and following Education Secretary Ruth Kelly's proposed ban on junk food in schools, another five have signed up.

Wherever possible, the company uses local suppliers, such as Kate's Cakes, from Ashington, and Court Lodge Organics from Pevensey.

The food and drink sold in the machines does not look or feel radically different from what most children will be used to.

But the crisps are salt free and the drinks are made from real fruit. Another way the company is winning schools and children over is by not insisting on exclusivity agreements in schools, so the Orange Boxes often stand next to conventional vending machines.

Director Sue Scott said: "For most kids, there is simply no alternative to the big brand snacks presented to them in school vending machines. We believe if you give young people tasty alternatives, they will make positive health choices. Pocket money power is definitely speaking.

"We have been very lucky in terms of the timing of this venture. We had the idea long before the Jamie Oliver school dinners campaign took off, but that gave us a huge boost. Now with Ruth Kelly announcing a ban on unhealthy food in vending machines, we have been inundated with calls from schools, suppliers and other vending machine companies."

Now Sue is calling on the Government to "put its money where its mouth is".

"If it is serious about challenging obesity and improving eating habits, then the Treasury shouldn't be growing fat from a tax on healthy products dispensed through vending machines.

"We want the VAT lifted on healthy food without additives so it can go head to head against the pocket money-priced junk kids are used to.

"Suspending the tax on healthy food sold in schools might persuade an 11-year-old with 50p in his pocket to buy two fruit bars from the machine rather than one Mars from the sweetshop.

One of the first schools to install a Big Orange Box was The Weald, in Billingshurst. Assistant head Malcolm Peppiatt said: "We had been concerned for some time about the nutritional quality of food and drink provided in our vending machines but it was difficult finding a provider that offered genuinely healthy alternatives that pupils would choose. We've been delighted with the response to the Big Orange Boxes. The adults are enjoying them, too."

The three-man firm has launched a wholesale service for school tuck shops and signed two franchise agreements with satellite operators who will build their own Natural Vending Company businesses.

Tuesday, October 11 2005