Embargoed for 00.01 on Monday 8th October
- Businesses and food education programmes have made commitments to the Peas Please initiative to help increase vegetable consumption
- Children attending parties in GOALS football centres in Glasgow and Aberdeen will be offered healthy fruit and veg snacks as starter.
- 6000 children will learn to cook and taste new vegetable-based meals in Chefs@School cookery classes.
- Top attraction Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh will include 2 portions of veg in all their children’s hot meals in their visitor café.
- 1 in 10 children in Scotland eat no fruit or veg at all, with only 15% eating the recommended minimum of 5 portions per day – revealed figures published last month.
- Peas Please pledging businesses served 4.8 million additional portions of veg in the first year of the initiative.
- The full set of Peas Please pledgers will be announced at a high-level Vegetable Summit on 8th
Vegetable Summit, 8th October 2018 – Today, Dynamic Earth, GOALS football centre chain, and Chefs@School are among 15 pledgers joining the UK-wide Peas Please initiative to put more vegetables on our plates.
Peas Please is coordinated by partner organisations in each of the four UK nations, and aims to bring together companies and brands to make it easier for people to eat veg. Businesses are invited to make commitments for how they will help us all eat more veg.
The motivation is simple: to save lives. 85% of children in Scotland eat less fruit and veg than the recommended 5 portions per day, with 1 in 10 eating none at all. But for every one of your five-a-day eaten, your risk of premature death decreases by 5%. Eating more veg helps prevent diet-related chronic illnesses like heart disease, cancer and diabetes, and would significantly reduce the subsequent financial burden on the NHS.
Chefs@Schools is a food education project funded by the Scottish Government. Today, the programme is pledging to inspire 6,000 children to eat more greens, with new recipes and educational resources focused on vegetables.
Marie-Clare James, programme manager of Chefs@School, said: “Chefs@School are delighted to make our pledge to Peas Please. Since we started working in Schools in September 2013 we have become so much more aware of the need to encourage and support Scottish Young people to eat more fruit and vegetables. We are delighted to align both our Soupathon and Healthy Snack workshops with the campaign and look forward to working with even more young people in Scotland to deliver inspiring food education in the years to come.”
Football centre chain GOALS, who manage 46 centres across the UK, with two in Glasgow and one in Aberdeen, will introduce veg sticks and humus as a starter to their party menus, and plan to get kids eating an additional 100,000 portions in 2019.
Martin Rigby, Head of Food and Beverage at GOALS, said: “We’re really pleased to be part of something that will make a difference for future generations. Making small changes in our lifestyle choices can have a big impact on our health and wellbeing and GOALS are proud to support Peas Please.”
Iconic venue Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh is also stepping up to support veg consumption, by serving more veg-based options in their café, and pledging to include 2 portions of veg in every hot children’s meal. With around 100,000 visitors each year, this commitment will help thousands of children eat more veg on a fun day out.
Susan Paton, Café Manager at Dynamic Earth, said: “We are really excited to be part of the Peas Please campaign and are looking forward to encouraging all the families who visit Dynamic Earth to adopt healthier lifestyles.”
Peas Please is coordinated by partner organisations in each of the four UK nations, and aims to bring together business and brands from across the food system to secure commitments to improve the availability, affordability and quality of the veg offer in shops, schools, fast-food restaurants and beyond.
London City Hall will play host to the Vegetable Summit 2018 on 8th October as participants in the initiative celebrate the impact already made by Peas Please, announce major new pledges, welcome Northern Ireland as a new partner4, and launch the Peas Please 2018 Progress Report.
Pete Ritchie, Executive Director of Nourish Scotland, said: “It is fantastic to see Dynamic Earth, GOALS, and Chefs@School join a national effort to make it easier for all of us to eat more veg. It is hugely important for healthy food habits to be developed from childhood, so getting our kids eating veg in fun settings is a big step in the right direction.”
Anna Taylor, Executive Director of the Food Foundation, said: “Peas Please shows that it is possible to make it easier for everyone to eat more veg but it needs concerted leadership from progressive businesses. We’ve made great progress in the last 8 months but the pressure is now on to change pledges into portions to ensure genuine impact on the nation’s health.”
Notes to Editors
Contact: Celia Nyssens – 0746 2011 373 / celia@nourishscotland.org.uk
References for figures quoted above:
- Health benefits of veg: Food Foundation – Veg Facts
- 5-a-day statistics: Scottish Health Survey 2017
- Peas Please portions to date: Peas Please Progress Report
Social Media: #PeasPlease
About Peas Please
A trail-blazing initiative focused specifically on veg, Peas Please aims to bring together farmers, retailers, fast food and restaurant chains, caterers, processors and government departments with a common goal of making it easier for everyone to eat veg. Committed to collaborative working, Peas Pease is led by project partners the Food Foundation, WWF UK, Nourish Scotland, Food NI and Food Cardiff who have secured engagement and support from over 150 organisations in cities, business and Governments across the UK to bring about change to the whole food system to improve people’s health and wellbeing.
Find more information about Peas Please here.
