The 2024 campaign reached 620,000 children from 2,375 primary and special schools. Over the last six years, through a combination of over £20m of advertising and the schools’ programme 1.7m children from over 5,000 primary and special schools have benefited from the campaign.
The campaign supported an increase in vegetable consumption in not only children participating in the schools’ programme but their parents too. According to research 80% of children are not eating enough vegetables and a third of children eat less than a portion a day.
Veg Power says this major public health issue has a negative impact on many aspects of children’s health, but also has ‘huge ramifications’ later in life including increased healthcare costs and reduced productivity.
Eat Them to Defeat Them is a multi-award winning campaign that ‘inspires’ children to eat vegetables by combining the power of advertising with an effective schools’ programme. Evaluation of the 2024 campaign found:
- 77% of parents reported that their child had eaten more vegetables
- 62% of parents also stated their child’s participation had led to an increase in their own veg-eating habits
- 55% of parents reported a lasting and long term improvement in the volume and variety of vegetables eaten
- 87% of children and 90% of parents who took part this year have asked to do it again
Dan Parker, chief executive of Veg Power, said: “Our evaluation data has shown that the Eat Them to Defeat Them campaign is not only much loved and well known by this generation of children but critically it is also becoming steadily more effective each year. This is regardless of household income and demonstrates it works across all income brackets.
“We’re thrilled with the results that show we are slowly making a difference to improving vegetable acceptance and our nation’s diet. The crucial next step will be to bring about more positive change with our 2025 campaign and just imagine what we could achieve if all children in primary school benefited from the schools’ programme, rather than just 10-20%."