Eat Them To Defeat Them!
From Monday 19 February through to Friday 29 March, our primary schools again took part in the Eat them to defeat them national campaign
VegPower’s YouGov Survey demonstrated that more children in Hampshire found the campaign fun than the national average. This motivator helped make the programme a success.
Now in our fifth year we have evaluation data which confirms that repeated involvement in the campaign leads to increased veg consumption over the long term. Overall, parents and carers who responded to our surveys believe the campaign has encouraged them to eat more vegetables as a family and so these results are a step forward in improving children’s diets.
We are often asked why the campaign is about defeating scary veg. Find out why by visiting the official VegPower page for their explanation.
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more ideas on how you can encourage your children to sample new veg and see photos of the activities in schools. Please share to help us build a sense of collective achievement.
100%
of schools believe the campaign was successful in getting children to eat more vegetables
215K
pupils participated during 2020-2024
How Education Catering are supporting Veg Power
The theme for the 2024 schools‘ Eat Them to Defeat Them programme was the big chomp: Children were encouraged to get their gnashers to work defeating the veg one big bite at a time!
Children were rewarded from a series of stickers to reward for trying the recipes/vegetables in school.
As part of the schools’ packs each child received a wall chart and sticker pack to encourage them to eat those vegetables, and try those dishes, again at home.
In schools
Schools held veg assemblies, using veggie lesson plans and decorations to help bring it all together. Every child in a school taking part received a fun activity book to take home. We’ve also provided participating schools with quizzes aimed at children in Year R to Year 2 to extend their learning.
Get scribbling!
We encouraged each school to have a scribble wall close to their serving hatch for children can interact while queuing for school lunch. Building on the success of our primary school team of the year, Endeavour Primary in Andover, we know that children enjoy adding their own comments and doodles about veg!
Recipes
Watch our fun cook-along videos featuring children from Barton Farm Primary Academy to see how you can defeat the veg of the week at home. It’s a great way of getting children involved!
- Watch the tomatoes video
- Watch the sweetcorn video
- Watch the peppers video
- Watch the carrots video
- Watch the peas video
- Watch the broccoli video
You can also visit our recipes page
Games and quizzes
Remember to join in at home and help your child play our fun quizzes. And why not play our Who Am I game as a family? It also encourages thinking and communication skills.
-
Name that veg game (KS1)
Who am I? Can you work out the name of the vegetables?
-
Who am I?
Who am I? A fun guessing game where players use yes or no to guess the identity of the vegetable
-
Your vegetable patch
What vegetables are growing in the garden?
-
Maths symmetry - cabbage
Use the grid lines to help you mirror the image of a cabbage
-
Maths symmetry - cauliflower
Use the grid lines to help you mirror the image of a cauliflower
-
Maths symmetry - courgette
Use the grid lines to help you mirror the image of a courgette
-
Maths symmetry - squash
Use the grid lines to help you mirror the image of a squash
-
Find the broccoli - quiz sheet
Can you find the broccoli hiding in the forest
-
Find the scary veg - quiz sheet
Find and circle the carrot with the scary face
-
Find the odd one out - quiz sheet
Circle the pea that looks different to the others
-
Find the scary veg - quiz sheet
Find and circle the pepper with the scary face
-
Find the scary veg - quiz sheet
Find and circle the tomato with the scary face
Endeavour Primary School Defeats All Other schools
Our team wowed VegPower with their creativity in the national Caterers’ Challenge in 2021. They went one better in 2022 and won the national competition!
Find out how they pulled out all the stops to engage pupils and win the competition in our case study.
Really enjoyed this year’s campaign! The children at my school were very excited about it and looked forward to Friday to try all the veg.
Anstey Junior School
In 2022, Anstey Junior School in Alton came runners up in the Caterer’s Challenge by engaging pupils with their creative veg characters such as Swam-pea, Grumpy Bumpy Tomato and Canon Carrot.
Talavera Infant School
Talavera Infant School catering team in Aldershot created play scenes such as this castle and a Broc and Roll band to excite the children to defeat their veg.
Waterside Primary Schools
How the team at Waterside Primary made children laugh during broccoli week.