Leicestershire backs children eating more veg campaign

Leicestershire County Council has joined the national Eat Them To Defeat Them campaign to encourage children across the county to eat more vegetables.

Veg Power’s national seven-week campaign, which launched on 12 February, seeks to capture children’s imagination by encouraging them to join the fight to defeat vegetables. Now, county council services, LTS Catering and public health have joined forces to get Leicestershire schools involved in the healthy eating initiative.

Schools in the region are also helping out by promoting to pupils the benefits of eating the vegetable of the week and using the vegetable in the school food to prove how defeating vegetables is very tasty work. So far, carrots, peas and sweetcorn have all been targeted with broccoli the target for the week beginning 16 March.

More than 60 schools are taking part across the county of Leicestershire.

Lee Breckon, cabinet member for health and wellbeing, said: “This kind of initiative is a great way to get children engaged with and motivated by healthy eating. It really compliments the weight management work that we are doing within our public health service and we hope that parents and children alike will take advantage of the resources available to help develop healthy habits inside and outside of the home that will last a lifetime.”

Dame Rosie Boycott, Chair of Veg Power, hassaid: “The Eat Them to Defeat Them campaign has driven real behaviour change and is loved by children and adults alike. We’ve proven that the power of creative advertising can inspire children to eat more veg and reduce their chances of developing diet-related illness, so it’s crucial that we build on this success: industry, business and government must forge ahead and promote veg in more dynamic and creative ways.”