The award-winning Eat Them To Defeat Them campaign from Veg Power and ITV that has proven to increase children’s vegetable intake is returning for its fourth year next month.

This year’s campaign is set to reach one million children nationwide and aims to encourage children and their families to adopt life-long healthy eating habits.

Thanks to support from the vegetable growers Riviera Produce based in Cornwall, Eat Them To Defeat Them resources have been fully funded and are available for all primary schools across the county. Schools simply need to register at EatThemToDefeatThem.com to apply.

Children across the UK’s vegetable consumption levels are consistently not meeting government recommendations. The latest National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS), found almost a third (29%) of primary school aged children are eating less than one portion of veg a day.

As vegetables are an essential source of vitamins, minerals and fibre and a key part of a healthy diet, these low consumption levels suggest our children’s nutritional intake and overall health may be compromised.

Research conducted by the University of Norwich also found children who ate their five-a-day had improved mental health suggesting the benefits of vegetable consumption extends beyond our physical health.

With 45% of parents finding it a struggle to get their kids to eat vegetables, the Eat Them To Defeat Them campaign inspires them to eat more veg by combining the power of advertising with a schools’ programme.

It brings together a huge alliance including TV advertising, celebrities, supermarkets, chefs, schools, communities and families.

Evaluation of the 2021 campaign confirmed its effectiveness at encouraging participating children and their wider families to eat more veg, with 59% of children participating in the schools’ programme, 11% of parents and 16% of older children (12+ years) eating more veg.

In addition, there was resounding support for the campaign to return as reported by 84% of kids, 90% of parents and 93% of schools. Importantly, 66% of schools confirmed there was less veg wasted during the campaign as children were more likely to finish the veg on their plates. 

Commenting on the 2022 campaign, Dan Parker, Veg Power chief executive, said: “We know that vegetable consumption levels drastically need to be improved – for the benefit of our health, well being and our planet.

"We also know that Eat Them To Defeat Them is working and children are eating more veg because of their involvement, but we need to broaden the reach and have more schools and local authorities join us to achieve our mission this year.

“If you are worried about your child’s mood, behaviour and learning, a good place to start is their diet.

"Studies show that the best diet for good mood, behaviour and learning is one that includes a regular eating pattern and a variety of food with two to three handfuls of vegetables per day,” commented Rebecca Stevens, Registered Nutritionist, Veg Power.

“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 is proven to be an incredibly effective way of changing children’s eating choices, and ITV is proud to once again be behind it,” commented Susie Braun, Director of Social Purpose at ITV.

Eat Them to Defeat Them 2022 will be returning as a seven-week programme running from February 12 to April 1, once again supported by a £3 million advertising campaign donated by ITV, Channel 4, Sky and with support from Aldi, ASDA, Co-op, Dole, Lidl, Sainsburys, Tesco and Waitrose. 

The schools programme will launch on February 28, just after the ads have first appeared during primetime family viewing slots, and will run for five weeks with a different family-favourite veg featured each week.

Last year, across the UK, the campaign reached 468,000 kids from 1,800 primary schools and since its launch in February 2019 has resulted in sales of an extra 517 million children’s vegetable portions.