What do schools really think about the Eat Them to Defeat Them campaign?

The multi award-winning Eat Them to Defeat Them campaign has made positive steps towards improving children’s dietary health by encouraging kids to give vegetables a try and reinforcing these new veg-eating habits at home. Since its inception six years ago, the Eat Them to Defeat Them schools’ programme has reached over 1.7 million children from over 5,000 primary and special schools.

Research involving children and parents had already highlighted that the schools' programme was effective and fun, but we were also keen to know what teachers and school catering teams really thought about it.

So we asked them about the changes they had noticed following participation in Eat Them to Defeat Them.

What did this evaluation find?

More veg eaten - the first key finding corroborated that children were eating more veg as a result – 89% of those surveyed felt children ate more veg due to their participation in the schools’ programme.?

While we were delighted with these results we also wanted to know how enjoyable the experience was and, importantly, if the schools wanted to participate in the programme again.?

High levels of enjoyment and desire to repeat - 96% of respondents stated their pupils really enjoyed taking part in the schools’ programme and 95% wanted the programme to return to their school in 2025. In addition, nearly three quarters (74%) of respondents stated the campaign was being talked about which further reinforces that children enjoyed the experience.?

"This is the fourth year our school has participated in the Eat Them to Defeat Them campaign and we've been really impressed with its impact on our pupils. We've noticed that they encourage each other to eat more vegetables and try things that were new to them. We have also heard from our parents that it has encouraged their children to eat more vegetables at home."

Other key insights shared included:

“The children loved it, they would show off how many veg they were eating to any adult that walked past them in the dinner hall.”

“Children encouraged each other to eat more veg and try things they hadn't done before. We also hear parents used this at home to encourage clean plates!”

“As soon as we reminded the children about last year’s campaign during both assemblies they became super excited.”?

Other benefits identified - the stakeholder evaluation also revealed a reduction in school food waste with 74% stating children were more likely to finish their veg on their plates as a result of the campaign. An uptake in school meals was also evident with 55% stating it encouraged more children to try school meals. Importantly, the message about increasing veg consumption was filtering back to the home environment, with 42% of respondents reporting an increase in the amount of veg being included in packed lunch boxes.?

“Thank you for encouraging the children to eat more veg. They have been eating more and more veg at lunch and that helps so that there's no more food waste!”

Use of campaign materials - each participating school was provided with decorations for the dining hall, a set of fun posters and rolls of stickers to hand out to children acknowledging their veg-eating successes. To help reinforce the veg-eating habits at home, a reward chart and sticker pack were provided for every child. Schools were also given a range of digital assets that could be downloaded to suit the activities they were implementing. These included lesson and assembly plans, numeracy and literacy worksheets and arts and crafts projects.

The materials and resources were well-received by teachers and their pupils with high levels of engagement - 87% used the wall charts and 93% used the sticker packs. Parents were also keen to receive these materials to support the home-school link, with teachers commenting that parents were keen to motivate children to eat more vegetables at home by rewarding them.

?“When a pupil (especially the younger ones) saw another pupil receiving a sticker for eating all their vegetables, the next day more pupils were eating more because they wanted a sticker too.”

“It does make our parents consider their diets at home and the sticker charts have been seen and shared with us that these have encouraged those pupils to eat more veg at home when we have had parental buy in.”

Adaptability of the schools' programme - schools adapted the programme with a range of creative ideas implemented by teaching and catering staff. These included: class challenges, veg superheros, poster competitions, veg-packed recipes for the school newsletter and combining with an eco week to reduce food waste.?

We enjoyed this theme, printed a lot of resources for display and our catering staff were fantastic with the things they trialled and offered the children.

What about Eat Them to Defeat Them 2025?

The campaign will be returning to schools in 2025 during w/c 10th March. The programme costs 50p per child – we are busy securing funding from government, sponsors, caterers and academy trusts. To find out more and register your interest to take part, visit?

https://vegpower.org.uk/eat-them-to-defeat-them/

If you can help with funding or have any further questions please get in touch.