Elior and Stephenson Way Academy and Primary School are the winners of ITV and Veg Power’s Eat Them to Defeat Them school catering challenge.
The school catering challenge ran nationally and aimed to highlight the brilliant, innovative and creative work that catering teams across the country were doing to help support this year’s campaign.
The judges awarded Stephenson Way’s team for doing such a brilliant job at capturing the spirit of the campaign and involving so many children in their colourful and inspiring designs. They transformed the school canteen with a fantastic display of evil vegetables! The kids loved it and enjoyed being the heroes as they had to EAT THEM TO DEFEAT THEM.
Following the success of 2019’s campaign, February 2020 saw ITV and Veg Power launch a new, bigger and better incarnation of Eat them to Defeat Them. This year, 6 x 10 second adverts are airing alongside the original ad on ITV, Channel 4 and Sky, with each advert challenging kids to eat that week’s featured veg.
The EAT THEM TO DEFEAT THEM campaign has been in 1500 primary schools across the country in 2020 with a schools programme that was designed by educators, public health professionals, school caterers and the Veg Power Creative team in line with the curriculum and government healthy-eating guidelines.
Many schools posted some of their wonderful and innovative creative ideas via #EatThemToDefeatThem
During the schools closure due to Covid-19 it is possible to download fun creative worksheets and art projects from the Eat them To Defeat them Website.
Earlier this year, ITV and Veg Power published the evaluation report for 2019’s Eat Them To Defeat Them campaign. “This report is just the beginning of our journey,” said Baroness Rosie Boycott, Veg Power Chair. “One campaign is not going to change the world. But the positive results we have seen already are nothing short of an extraordinary start.”
The campaign was seen by 38 million people on ITV and sales data from econometrics specialist Pearl Metrics and data analyst Nielsen show there was a 2.3 per cent uplift in vegetable sales during the campaign. This helped generate an extra 17.7 million unit sales of vegetables with a retail value of £16.2m.6
In addition, Childwise and YouGov suggests that attitudes and behaviour among children and their parents have started to change. A YouGov survey of 1,000 children and their parents showed the advert was liked by 64% of children aged between 6-11years. 43% of kids who saw the ad said they wanted to eat more vegetables that week.6
Veg Power is part of the Peas Please initiative which aims to deliver meaningful change in the food system by 2023 by making it easier for everyone, particularly those on low incomes, to eat more veg. The initiative is coordinated by partner organisations in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and aims to bring together businesses and brands from across the UK food system to secure commitments to improve the availability, affordability and quality of the veg offered in supermarkets, shops, schools, pubs, fast food outlets and beyond.
Earlier this year, Peas Please published its second Progress Report, announcing that 90 million more portions of veg have been served as a result of the initiative. The report showcases ‘Veg Pledges’ made by 63 contract caterers, high street chains, retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers, public food procurers, broadcasters and 22 Veg Cities.
Jade Gower, Promotions Manager from Elior said “We are delighted to have been awarded the top and runner up prizes in the Caterers Challenge for Stephenson Way Infants and Middlestone Moor respectively. Not only that, but to have six of our schools make the shortlist is such a great testament to the hardwork of all of our catering teams. We have fully embraced Eat Them to Defeat Them across our education sites as we recognise the lasting positive impact it makes to the pupils and what a difference it truly has made! We are proud to have had the team’s creative efforts in bringing Eat Them To Defeat Them to life recognised”
