The effect of free school fruit on academic performance: a nationwide quasi-experiment

Abstract

In past research, higher intake of fruit has been associated with better academic achievement. Can the provision of one piece of fruit every school day improve children′s academic performance? In Norway, the government required all lower secondary schools to provide fruit to their pupils from 2007 to 2014. The policy also covered schools with combined elementary and lower secondary education (1st to 10th grade), but not ordinary elementary schools (1st to 7th grade). This differentiation, in combination with administrative data on test scores before, during, and after the law was enforced, created a nationwide quasi-experiment. Population register data on parents′ sociodemographic characteristics allowed for targeted analyses of a subsample with lower grades and lower fruit intake (boys of low socioeconomic status). In pre-registered analyses, we found no evidence that exposure to the free school fruit policy improved academic performance in the subsample or the entire population of Norwegian pupils. The free fruit policy coincided with a slight decline in performance among pupils covered by the policy. In a Western country with low levels of food insecurity, a policy that required schools to provide free fruit to pupils did not improve learning and may even have interfered with learning.