The Times, November 28, 2018
The ‘It/But’ (or in this case ‘It/Instead’) format is supposedly a way of making a routine story more interesting. There are a few ( a very few) occasions when it works but on the whole, as here, it is tired and tiresome.
This is a better attempt:
i newspaper, November 28, 2018
It is a straighter intro but it could be improved. For a start I would never begin a story with ‘A government drive . . . ‘ unless I wanted to send readers to sleep. I am not enamoured of ‘kids’.
This would be my suggestion:
A £40million drive to encourage children to eat more fruit and vegetables has managed to put them off healthy eating, according to a charity.