A Top Trumps-style card game created by kids at a school in Yorkshire - and featured in The Grocer - is now oversubscribed, with suppliers from Arla Foods to Unilever having signed up.

In a letter to The Grocer, Mike England, head teacher at Woodleigh School, said that the EdStat card game, which aims to teach children about food and diet using a number of statistics-based measuring systems including GDAs and traffic lights, initially struggled to gain industry support.

Only one manufacturer agreed to feature in the deck of 50 cards at first and some manufacturers were openly hostile to the game, which gives the nutrition statistics of 59 food and drink products including cheese, yoghurt, milk, breakfast cereals, tinned food and cooking sauces.

But following the publication of an article in The Grocer ('Trump That', The Grocer, 2 June 2007), there had been a huge response from manufacturers.

"Following the article, companies began to contact us asking to be considered for inclusion," said England. "A great deal of momentum has built up as a result."

Companies now signed up include Premier Foods, Mars UK, Arla, Tilda, Unilever, Tryton Foods and Kettle, with well-known brands such as Bisto, Hovis, Marmite, Tilda, Cravendale, Aunt Bessie's and Kellogg's Corn Flakes appearing.

England has also been approached by the Year of Food and Farming with a view to distributing the game to every school in the country.

He said he hoped to forge links with the Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation to distribute packs to schools in the north and the Midlands and was looking for further distribution partners. There was an opportunity, he added, for a supermarket or wholesaler to sponsor distribution of the packs to primary and secondary schools.

He estimated that it would cost just £130,000 to supply every primary school in England with five decks of cards, excluding distribution, and appealed to retailers to support the scheme .

The school is also asking charities for support.

Letters p24; Year of Food and Farming p28

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