Ensuring youngsters eat healthily at school is all very well, but what happens if when they get home all they consume is processed junk food?

One local authority is attempting to tackle that dilemma by encouraging parents to provide a healthier diet.

The initiative, in Wolverhampton, involves selling boxes of fruit and vegetables to mothers and fathers when they come to pick up their children from school. Food items are sold at a subsidised rate, under a partnership between the city council and the Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust.

Four primary schools - Graiseley in Blakenhall, Grove in All Saints, Stow Heath in Willenhall and East Field in East Park - are involved in the programme.

Gloria Rye, from the hospital trust's nutrition and dietetic department, said: "We are keen to get everyone eating more fruit and vegetables." Parents can order up to three boxes each week and they are delivered directly to the school, ready for collection at the end of the school day.

They can choose from mixed packs, only fruit or only vegetables, and salad boxes.

Produced by notforprofit firm Wolverhampton Community Food Initiatives, they cost £2 per vegetable box, £3.20 for fruit, and £2.80 for salad.