Veg Power, the not-for-profit alliance to increase the UK’s vegetable consumption, launched its second public health campaign ‘Simply Veg’ today. Simply Veg is the first campaign to bring together an alliance of the top nutritionists and chefs with psychologists and children’s entertainers to combine their skills to improve UK families’ diets. The campaign offers a unique and holistic approach that moves beyond traditional public health nutrition education to helping parents with the real challenges they face everyday - whilst making it fun for kids.
Poor diet often starts in childhood and stays for life - 80% of UK kids aren’t eating enough vegetables with almost a third (29%) of primary school aged kids eating less than one portion of veg a day. While Veg Power’s award-winning Eat Them to Defeat Them campaign, in partnership with ITV, has successfully encouraged children to give veg a try, more support for parents/carers is critical. Veg Power’s latest research shows that parents who eat more veg and create a positive food culture in their home are nearly twice as likely to have children who eat more veg, try new veg and see vegetables as fun - this runs equally true across all household income brackets.
To ensure Simply Veg is relevant to all families, regardless of their veg eating struggles, a diverse panel of experts were brought together. By offering a unique and holistic approach to improving families’ diets, the campaign moves beyond traditional public health campaigns and focuses on the wider issues.
Commenting on the launch of Simply Veg, Dan Parker, Chief Executive, Veg Power, said, “For the first time, UK families have a public health campaign that recognises there are many potential issues that can impact on a family’s ability to eat healthily. Through our work over the last six years we have gained a deep understanding of the complexities of feeding a family and have developed this campaign so that it caters for all, no matter what their particular struggle may be. We have to recognise that feeding a family is hard work with parents facing many challenges including the cost of food and a fear of rejection and waste particularly when trying something new.”
As part of Simply Veg, a comprehensive manual ‘How to Get Your Kids to Eat More Veg – A Simple Guide to a Tricky Task’ has been developed with more in depth content including videos and fun activities including engaging content from Shaun the Sheep and the creative genius of Aardman, available on the www.simplyveg.org.uk website.
