After Free Fruit Friday was abolished in Victorian schools last week, Fox FM and Boost Juice have come to the rescue.

With the Department of Education funded program bring scrapped, Boost will support 300 schools with free fruit donations for an introductory period of time, hoping that other companies, such as fruit shops, local businesses and civic minded companies will get behind the reinstatement of this scheme with private funding.

Fox FM’s Matt and Jo interviewed Boost Juice founder Janine Allis this week to announce the initiative.

Free Fruit Friday will especially support disadvantaged schools where parents may not be able to provide healthy food for their kids.

The program was costing about $40 a week per school when it lost its government funding due to cuts in the state budget. About 300 schools were involved.

When the program was axed, Principals Association president Gabrielle Leigh told the Herald Sun: “It promoted healthy eating because we were giving students healthy foods to eat. We’re very disappointed it’s been axed.”

Now Boost and Fox have come to the rescue.  A campaign on Matt and Jo’s Facebook page aims to enlist other businesses to support the initiative.

Janine is married to former Austereo programmer Jeff Allis, who eventually left his job at Austereo to work with his wife when the Boost Juice business became hugely successful.

A special Facebook page has also been created for the initiative (click the link below).