More than 68% of students in Madeira who participated in the 'Fruit Heroes' project tried a fruit or vegetable for the first time. This finding comes from the program's monitoring for the 2024/2025 academic year, conducted by the Environmental Health Institute of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon (ISAMB/FMUL) in partnership with the Portuguese Association Against Childhood Obesity (APCOI).
The percentage of students who met daily fruit and vegetable consumption goals also increased, from 82.7% to 88.3%. The project also involved planting fruit trees in school grounds across the region and covered schools in the municipalities of Calheta, Câmara de Lobos, Funchal, Machico, Porto Santo, and Santa Cruz.
