One small van,
75 happy schools 

If our Perth Airport School Fruit Van had a theme song it would have to be “I’ve been everywhere”. 

What started as a relatively small initiative back in 2014 with 10 schools, now caters to 75 schools from Beeliar in the south, Armadale in the east and Alkimos in the north.  Once a term the van even makes a trip down to Serpentine Primary School, Jarrahdale Primary School and Mundijong Primary School to ensure we spread our love of fresh fruit as far as possible. 

We know that schools play a vital role in establishing healthy behaviours in children and teenagers, and understanding the importance of eating healthily encourages children to adopt a better lifestyle by choice. Thanks to Perth Airport and Stan Perron Charitable Foundation, schools with students at high risk of socioeconomic disadvantage receive a 10-kilogram box of fruit each week (a total of 30 boxes, 30,120kg a year) to provide to students who might not otherwise have regular access to fresh fruit.  

The program runs on average for 37 weeks a year and receives an overwhelmingly positive response from teachers and students. 

For more than 10 years the School Fruit Van was driven by Bert, who was brought out of retirement for the job! The van has recently been upgraded to a new a shiny one which we hope will service schools for another 10 years!  

This has been possible thanks to a joint venture between Stan Perron Charitable Foundation, who generously donated funds towards the purchase of the new van, and New Town Toyota who donated the installation of a refrigerated box to keep the fruit cool and three years of free vehicle servicing. The new van is now driven by Mike Taiaroa who joined Foodbank last year. Mike says that he can see that the service has been very helpful in school communities and that he often hears that there is never any fruit left over and schools are always waiting for their next delivery. 

The types of fruit supplied across the year vary with seasonality, however, typically includes apples, oranges, mandarins, watermelons, and stone fruit. 

Foodbank WA’s Perth Airport School Fruit Van as well as the School Breakfast Program help ensure that all students have the chance to be adequately nourished for their busy school day and have many positive benefits beyond feeding hungry tummies.