Lidl is to invest £500,000 over the next two years to help children in the UK develop a love of healthy eating.

Lidl Foodies will provide interactive workshops on fruit and vegetables, with an aim of reaching a quarter of a million primary school children in the first year.

Currently less than a third of children aged 7 to 11 can identify common vegetables like courgette and beetroot, according to findings from Lidl’s research.

Since launching in October 2024, Lidl Foodies has reached around 130,000 pupils across more than 1,000 schools, over half of which are in deprived areas.

According to Lidl’s research, around 73 per cent of teachers are not teaching diet diversity in healthy eating programmes, citing lack of curriculum time, resources, or training as key barriers.

The programme provides teachers with ready-made workshop plans via the National Schools Partnership.

As part of the first module, Lidl Tasters, teachers were given access to £100 Lidl vouchers to buy fruit and veg for in-class tastings.

“I’m proud that, at Lidl, we’re making healthy eating easier and more accessible – both through our affordable, high-quality fresh food and by helping children build a positive relationship with healthy choices from an early age,” said Georgina Hall, head of corporate affairs at Lidl GB. “With Lidl Foodies, we’re giving children the opportunity to explore different fruits and vegetables, broaden their knowledge of nutritious foods, and discover what they enjoy.

“Ultimately, our goal is to inspire a new generation of foodies who not only embrace healthy food but also recognise the importance of fresh fruit and veg for a lifetime of well-being.”

Earlier this year, Lidl announced that it will scrapping packaging designs deemed attractive to children on its least healthy own-brand products and will no longer sell unhealthy products with packaging that displays 3D or animated shapes, brightly coloured patterns, or playful product names that do not reflect the items themselves.

Lidl became the first supermarket to remove cartoon characters from its breakfast cereals in 2020, with other supermarkets following suit.

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