Retailer’s partnership with Dutch football association aims to make healthy half-time snacks part of every match
Dutch supermarket chain Albert Heijn wants to kick off the new football season by making fruit consumption a part of every junior team’s matchday routine.
With the launch of its Team Fruit initiative, the company has partnered with national football association KNVB to make the job of bringing along healthy half-time snacks something that can no longer be overlooked – in the same way as bringing the kit, running the line, or driving the team to their match are all essential tasks.
To achieve this, it has added a Team Fruit tool in the association’s widely used grassroots football Voetbal.nl app. This prompts teams to agree who will bring fruit for each upcoming match.
“This way, bringing fruit becomes not a separate action, but a team agreement that you arrange just as easily as other tasks around the match,” it says. “ As far as Albert Heijn is concerned, fruit at half-time can become just as normal as driving [to the game] or flag duty.”
Part of the plan is also to convince young footballers and their parents that fruit is convenient, healthy, and affordable.
In stores this week, the retailer will offer special deals on products that are easy to take along to matches and hand out, such as mandarins, small apples, and grapes.
Team Fruit is part of a long-running programme run by Albert Heijn and the KNVB called ’Better eating, better playing’, which encourages children to be more active and eat healthier.
