Schools across the Southern NSW Local Health District will join a state-wide simultaneous crunching of vegetables on Thursday, March 1 as part of NSW Health’s Vegetable Week.
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Joining the Big Vegie Crunch will be pupils at Bega Valley Public School, Quaama PS, Towamba PS and St Pat’s Primary in Bega.
Along with 16 other schools in the SNSWLHD and many more across the state, they will be aspiring to break the previous record of 29,067 students crunching vegetables simultaneously.
This experience aims to increase students’ knowledge, exposure and positive attitudes towards the vegetables.
According to the 2014-15 National Health Survey, 19 out of 20 Australian kids are not eating enough vegetables.
The survey found that while 68 per cent of children are eating the recommended serves of fruit every day, only 5.4 per cent are eating the recommended serves of vegetables.
Emma Woolley, SNSWLHD health promotion coordinator, said fun, interactive, school-based campaigns such as Vegetable Week and The Big Vegie Crunch can help to influence the variety and amount of vegies kids choose to eat.
“It is recommended that children between the ages of 4 and 12 eat around five serves of vegies each day,” Ms Woolley said.
“Events like this in the school setting, combined with positive peer influence and education around food, can improve awareness and inspires kids to try different types of vegies.
“The aim of this event is not only to get kids excited about breaking a record, but to encourage them to choose more vegies every day.”