Campaign to bring back the half-time orange

Scottish children’s teams are being called on to sign up to a scheme to bring back half-time oranges to kids’ football.

The project is calling for children’s teams around the country to sign a pledge to replace chocolate, crisps, sweets and biscuits during the half-time break with a healthier choice of snack.

Teams sign up to the scheme free at www.halftimejaffa.com

They will receive vouchers for fruit, entry into draws and competitions for football kit and other equipment, as well as regular updates on how the project is developing. Many teams will also receive their own half-time starter pack – including a cool bag, containers for home and away sides and information for the team.

The Bring Back the Half-Time Jaffa project was launched to encourage healthy eating in kids’ football. It began in Cambridgeshire in September, where local club St Ives Rangers was given half-time starter packs for all of its children’s teams as well as free half-time fruit for the entire 2013/14 football season.

A recent survey on half-time eating habits carried out for Jaffa fruit found almost half (45%) of kids eat crisps, chocolate, sweets or biscuits at half time. 43% drink fizzy or high sugar drinks during sports. Half of children thought it was important to eat fruit at half time, while 97% said they would eat a healthy snack if it was provided for them.