Eat Them to Defeat Them returns to UK primary schools

The award-winning Eat Them To Defeat Them campaign is returning to primary schools across the UK from today (10 March), organiser Veg Power has confirmed.

Now in its seventh year, the campaign, which has proven to increase children’s vegetable consumption, will build on the behaviour change success achieved in previous years.

Eat Them To Defeat Them was launched in 2019 to help tackle one of the major public health issues in the UK – poor vegetable consumption – with 80 per cent of children not eating enough vegetables and a third eating less than a portion per day.

The campaign inspires kids to eat more veg in school and to continue that behaviour at home. It brings together an alliance including celebrities, supermarkets, chefs, schools, communities and families, and over the last six years, over 1.5 million different children from over 5,000 primary and special schools have benefited from participation in the schools’ programme.

This year, 400,000 children across the UK are expected to participate and the campaign has been sponsored by major supermarkets and food brands Co-op, Sainsbury’s and Tilda.

Veg Power said that every year, the schools’ programme ”has become more effective at encouraging veg acceptance, but the real power of the campaign comes from repeated participation in schools”. In parents whose children have taken part more than once, 55 per cent reported a lasting and long-term improvement in both the volume and variety of vegetables eaten.

This year, the schools’ programme has responded to feedback from schools and caterers to allow for greater flexibility. The campaign will consist of a focus week beginning on Monday 10 March, with the ability to extend the programme to the Easter holidays.

Resources will be supplied for five veg-themed days – carrots, broccoli, red peppers, peas and sweetcorn – that the catering teams can implement at any time.

The campaign will also be brought to life in schools via decorations for the dining hall/kitchen hatch, participation stickers for the children, and take-home packs including a reward chart and stickers for each child. There are also resources to support the teachers and catering teams including lesson plans, introduction assembly and guidance booklets.

Dan Parker, chief executive of Veg Power, said, “We’re delighted with the impact that our schools’ programme is having on children’s veg-eating habits and that it is also leading to behaviour change within the family unit – with parents and siblings also benefiting from increased vegetable consumption.

“This is so important because not only will it mean that we’re having a positive impact on dietary health but we’re helping to form veg-eating habits in childhood that as the research shows are likely to be continued into adulthood.”