MORE Suffolk schools could be set to open student-run juice bars following a successful project in Ipswich, it was announced today.

MORE Suffolk schools could be set to open student-run juice bars following a successful project in Ipswich, it was announced today.

Copleston High School has led the way with its Mini MyJuice, which was opened on the back of the success of the town's MyJuice juice bar, and now the business has revealed a further eight schools in the county have expressed an interest in launching similar schemes.

The juice bar, which is based in the Buttermarket, has just celebrated helping its first group of more than 30 students from Copleston through a programme which taught them important skills linked with running a business and food hygiene.

The school opened a Mini MyJuice franchise in a common room which was run mainly by sixth formers and served healthy fruit smoothie drinks to students. Once the initial start-up costs are recouped, future profits will go back into the school.

Claire Lander, who runs MyJuice with her business partner David Fisher, said: “Whatever money they make will then be utilised for other projects.

“We have eight schools that have asked us if they could have a Mini MyJuice in the school.

“The people that benefit are the students. They are eating something healthy plus they're learning a wealth of business skills.”

The Copleston juice initiative landed MyJuice a prize at the recent Work with Schools awards, while 18-year-old Sian Meech, one of the Copleston students who lead the school's juice bar, was named East of England Student of the Year as a result of her role.

Another of the Copleston students involved, Katy Mills, 15, said: “It's gone really well. So far it's really going strong and it looks like it's going to be around for a while.

“The students like the healthy smoothies and they say they want a smoothie rather than a fizzy drink.

“Because it's run by students we know what each other like and what we want.”

A new group of Copleston students will be trained to run the juice bar when they return in September.

What do you think can be done to improve the diets of young people? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk