News

The teams represented Carryduff Primary School in Belfast and Endeavour Primary School In Hampshire in a Veg Power competition that is part of its award-winning Eat Them To Defeat Them campaign to get children to eat more vegetables. It is run in partnership with ITV.

Annette Coggins, head of foodservice at Tilda UK said: “We are super excited to be the official sponsor of the Eat Them To Defeat Them Caterers’ Challenge.

“We love inspiring schools to explore a world of flavours and cuisines, helping them serve up delicious dishes packed with veggies, vitamins, and minerals.

“Our goal is to support kids' development and keep their energy up throughout the school day. We always uncover some amazing recipe ideas combining Tilda rice and vegetables.”

Dan Parker, chief executive of Veg Power, added: “We are so grateful to all the catering teams, their commitment, creativity and enthusiasm is a key part in making the Eat Them to Defeat Them campaign a success.

“Thank you to everyone who entered for their role in the campaign and importantly, encouraging so many more children to try and enjoy vegetables.”

The new format of the Caterers’ Challenge this year saw entries receive an award - gold, silver or bronze - depending on their level of engagement and achievement with Eat Them to Defeat Them.

Fifteen silver prize winners will receive £100 and join the Caterers’ Challenge Hall of Fame receiving a certificate to acknowledge their support.

Thirteen entries were awarded bronze and will receive certificates.

The judges awarded Gold Prizes to Carryduff Primary and Endeavour Primary for their ‘passion, effort and high levels of creativity’ in bringing The Big Chomp theme to life.

Children at Carryduff Primary ‘travelled around the world’ in their Veg Power-ed hot air balloon and their dining hall was decorated to suit the country visited that day. Each class also decorated parts of the dining hall and their classroom door with artwork from a different country.

Endeavour Primary impressed by creating the ‘Biggest Chompers ever to walk the Earth: The Tomatosaurus, Terry the Pterodactyl and the mascot Big Chomper the Crocodile’. The characters were set in a jungle background and the Big Chomp-O-Meter helped the children choose what to chomp.

The £3m 2024 Eat Them To Defeat Them campaign is an alliance between Veg Power and ITV, Channel 4 and Sky Media. This year, the schools programme is expected to reach 637,000 children at 2,370 schools.

Analysis and evaluation of the campaign has previously found that 77% of parents whose children participated in the schools programme said their kids ate more veg in school.

This year’s campaign is being supported by Aldi, Birds Eye, Co-op, Sainsbury’s and Tesco.