VEG POWER - Your chance to get involved!
VEG POWER is a marketing fund that will use the best people in the advertising industry to create impactful, innovative digital campaigns. The aim is to tackle the critical issue of the lack of veg consumption. Why?, well:
80% of children do not eat enough veg (1)
95% of teenagers do not eat enough veg (1)
Only 1.2% of food and drink advertising gets spent on vegetables (2)
86% of children are reported by parents to pester them for junk food (3)
Parents and children are bombarded with advertising and promotions. The fund will also support and help parents by offering an alternative to the junk food advertising that kids are exposed to everyday.
Advertising clearly works as companies spend so much money to promote their products. There is already evidence that targeting advertising of fruit and vegetables has impact. Since British Summer Fruits launched their ‘Berries not Biscuits’ campaign in 2002 the annual sales of berries has risen from £375m to £1.26 Billion (4).
VEG POWER was created by Peas Please( https://foodfoundation.org.uk/peasplease/), a collaboration between the Food Foundation (https://foodfoundation.org.uk/), Nourish Scotland (http://www.nourishscotland.org/), Food Cardiff (http://foodcardiff.com/) and the WWF (https://www.wwf.org.uk/) to make it easier for people to choose veg.
The long-term goal is for VEG POWER to be sustainably funded by Government and the Food Industry and VEG POWER aims to prove that investing in promoting vegetables will change children’s attitudes and offer health benefits leading to huge savings across the NHS by reducing the cost of treating diet related disease. The NHS currently spends over £10 billion treating Type 2 Diabetes alone (5).
It will also support our farmers to produce more vegetables in the UK and support jobs and the economy. This will be hugely important in the lead up to Brexit and beyond.
The Crowdfund goes live today. The aim is to raise £100,000. Watch the video here: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/vegpower
For more information see the VEG POWER webpage www.vegpower.org.uk and follow on social media @VegPowerUK
A final thought… 20,000 premature deaths could be prevented every year in the UK if we ate enough vegetables (6). You can help make a huge difference!
95.5% teenagers & 80% children don’t eat enough veg. Veg Facts - The Food Foundation
Nielsen AdDynamix 2015, Force Fed - The Food Foundation
86% of parents report children pestering them for Junk Food. Children's Food Trust - State of the Nation
Further information available and representatives from British Summer Fruits are available for comment
Diabetes adds on an additional £10bn in costs per year to the NHS (Hex et al) 2012
Global Burden of Disease, 2016.
