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11th May 2022

‘Grow Strong’ – Getting children growing their own food

As part of our mission to get the UK eating more veg, we’ve joined forces with Edinburgh Community Food, the social enterprise and charity which tackles health inequalities, on an exciting programme. ‘Grow Strong’ is a pilot programme to help us create a powerful growing project which closely links growing to eating. 38 primary schools across Edinburgh will be taking part and will grow cherry tomatoes from seed creating a delicious pasta sauce with their harvest. Grow Strong is supported by local families, government, businesses (Unwins Seeds, Westland Horticulture, The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh), Edible Edinburgh and former Blue Peter gardener, Chris Collins.

Each participating child has received a Grow Pack containing a propagator, tomato seeds and compost kindly donated by Unwins Seeds. The seeds will be sown in school in May and the seedlings will be taken home over the summer holidays ready for the pasta sauce to be created from their cherry tomato harvest in September. During the holidays children will be able to visit community gardens in Edinburgh to find out more about growing vegetables and for expert help with their plant. The packs also contain a Grow Strong wall chart full of information and advice to help the young growers. Chris Collins will also be joining Edinburgh’s children, growing his own tomato plant and providing tips and vlogs to help them. To check out the materials, visit the project website here.

The key to success comes from extending the project from schools to home and the wider community. It also puts the children centre-stage as they perform the pivotal role of nurturing the tomato plants along their growing journey. The wall chart was specifically designed to act as the child’s ‘mission control’, bringing together every part of the journey with stickers which help track the ‘seed to seedling to harvest’ and integrated digital components to add depth and discovery to it. As with all of our projects, we believe we are stronger when working in partnership with other organisations. This project provides a model to bring together a diverse alliance who are focused on a shared goal.

Commenting on Grow Strong, Chris Collins said, “There is nothing like seeing the miracle of a tiny seed emerge from the soil, grow, bloom and produce fresh food.  When you have grown once, you will want to grow for a lifetime. Knowing how to grow food is not just amazing fun, it’s also a life skill and one our children should not be without.”

21st April 2022

ITV AND VEG POWER’S EAT THEM TO DEFEAT THEM AIMS TO BUILD ON A BILLION IN NEW 2022 CAMPAIGN

Eat Them To Defeat Them returns for a fourth year with the news that just under a billion additional kids portions of vegetables have been sold since its launch in 2019


The ITV and Veg Power scheme, supported by STV, Channel 4 and Sky and sponsored by an alliance of supermarkets and food brands, launches during The Masked Singer this Saturday (Feb 12)

This year’s TV advert is available here.

ITV and Veg Power’s award-winning health-eating campaign, Eat Them To Defeat Them, returns for 2022 with the aim of one million children receiving activity packs.

Since the campaign debuted in January 2019, Eat Them To Defeat Them has led to sales of almost one billion additional children’s portions of vegetables – worth just under £92 million. 

Proven to get children to eat more vegetables, this year the TV campaign aims to reach 70 percent of households with primary school-aged children, with further reach through a schools programme designed to inspire kids to eat vegetables.

The £3 million campaign launches on Saturday night (February 12) with an advert to be shown during the primetime finale of The Masked Singer on ITV and is part of ITV, Channel 4 and Sky’s £10m commitment to promoting healthy lifestyles for children.

The campaign’s schools programme will launch just after the ads have appeared in primetime family viewing slots and will run for five weeks, with a different family-favourite veg featured each week. 

Participating schools will enjoy veg tasting sessions, posters, teaching aids and games, and one million children will be given a vegetable reward chart and sticker pack. 

The Welsh Government are supporting the campaign by funding a bilingual school’s programme for all primary and special schools across Wales.

The campaign is funded by eight major food retailers and brands  –  Aldi, ASDA, Coop, Dole, Lidl, Sainsburys, Tesco and Waitrose. It was developed by advertising agency adam&eveDDB who work on the campaign pro bono. 

Media agency, Essence, have planned the off-air media for the campaign, securing pro-bono contributions from advertising and media partners, including Acast, Spotify, Mail Online, Yahoo, LadBible, Mail Metro Media, Ocean Outdoor, Clear Channel, JCDecaux  and others in a huge drive to encourage children to feel more enthusiastic about eating vegetables. 

Eat Them to Defeat Them takes the unique and unusual approach of agreeing with children that vegetables are evil. Not just evil, but taking over the world – and the only way to beat them is to eat them. 2021’s campaign evaluation found that just over three-quarters of kids confirmed they found it fun, with nearly 60% of children who participated in schools claiming they ate more vegetables as a result.

Baroness Rosie Boycott, Chair of the Veg Power board said: “Our latest evaluation shows the Eat Them To Defeat Them campaign is having a much needed, positive impact on children’s veg consumption. Now in its fourth year, we hope the campaign will encourage children to adopt life-long healthy eating habits which will in turn improve our nation’s health.”

Susie Braun, Director of Social Purpose at ITV, said: “It’s never been more important to make sure our kids eat well, and the best way of doing that is to make it fun. Eat Them to Defeat Them has proven to be an incredibly effective way of changing children’s eating choices, and ITV is proud to once again be behind it.”

Verica Djurdjevic, Chief Revenue Officer at Channel 4, said: “Eat Them To Defeat Them has been a fantastic success and delivered amazing results. Channel 4 is delighted to be part of such an important mission which has real impact on children’s lives and well-being. Introducing healthy eating from the outset doesn’t just mean children are getting more vitamins and fibre into their diets, it helps develop healthy eating habits which will last a lifetime.”

Patrick Behar, Chief Business Officer at Sky said: “The results show that the ‘carrot and celery stick’ approach really works. We’ve been proud to play our part, collaborating with ITV, C4 and Veg Power on this important campaign.”

7th July 2022

55% OF UK ADULTS STRUGGLE TO EAT FIVE A DAY

“Breakfast in Colour” campaign launched to remind British public that five a day can start at breakfast.

A recent You Gov survey commissioned by Veg Power, the not-for-profit to increase vegetable consumption across the UK, has found that 55% of UK adults are struggling to eat their five a day.1 This finding supports the latest UK-wide National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) in which only 33% of adults were currently achieving the five a day target.2

Interestingly, the Veg Power survey also found that breakfast is very often overlooked as a meal opportunity to add veg to, with 73% of people surveyed rarely or never eating vegetables for breakfast. With reasons cited as preferring other breakfasts (46%) and a tendency to eat the same thing for breakfast (33%). These findings suggest that breakfast is a missed opportunity for consuming some of our five a day target.

To encourage the British public to reconsider their breakfast choice and help them to meet their five a day target, Veg Power has launched its ‘Breakfast in Colour’ campaign. Look out for its promotional video on social media together with ideas and inspiration to guide people in the creation of easy-to-prepare and colour breakfast dishes. The campaign will be supported on social media by a range of experts and influencers including Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall; family food expert and author, Emily Leary (@amummytoo); Triplets in My Kitchen (@triplets_in_my_kitchen); Plant-based and Sustainable Chef, Bettina Campolucci Bordi (@bettinas_kitchen) and Registered Nutritionists, Zoe Griffiths (@zg_nutrition) and Charlotte Radcliffe (@the_nutrition_consultant).

Dan Parker, Chief Executive, Veg Power, commented, “Breakfast is a meal occasion for many in which veg simply just don’t feature. By sharing simple ideas and options to add veg to this meal, we hope the British public will reconsider their breakfast choices and aim for a more colourful and nutritious meal with veg added. Let’s get the message out there that five a day can start at breakfast.”

Rebecca Stevens, Registered Nutritionist, Veg Power said, “Breakfast is an important meal providing an opportunity to fuel and nourish our bodies. However, we can be creatures of habit and time poor in the mornings, resulting in breakfasts being a fairly repetitive affair. By adding some veg, you can cover off some of your five-a-day and  nutritional needs particularly fibre, vitamins and minerals.”

Veg Power has a number of exciting initiatives for the rest of the year, all designed to increase the UK’s veg intake. Look out for #simplesaladbowls launching later this summer.