Eat Them To Defeat Them 2026 Schools Challenge

Veg Power announced today that it has launched the new Eat Them to Defeat Them Schools Challenge as part of this year’s campaign. Replacing the Caterers’ Challenge, these new awards will not only recognise the crucial role that all catering teams play in bringing the campaign to life but the importance of adopting a whole school approach to increase the campaign’s impact. Tilda is sponsoring the Eat Them to Defeat Them Schools Challenge and cash prizes are up for grabs with the gold winners set to receive £1,500.

Poor Vegetable Consumption

Eat Them To Defeat Them was launched in 2019 to tackle one of the major public health issues in the UK – poor vegetable consumption. 80% of children are not eating enough vegetables and, worryingly, a third of kids are eating less than a portion per day.¹ The campaign was designed to inspire kids to eat more veg in school and to continue that behaviour at home. Evaluation data confirms the campaign is changing children’s eating habits with 82% of parents of children who took part stating they ate more vegetables.

This year’s campaign, returning in early March, is set to benefit 300,000 pupils from 1,000 schools across the UK bringing the total of children who have experienced this award winning campaign to over 1.8 million from 5,000 primary and special schools. This year’s campaign has been sponsored by Sainsbury’s with additional funding from local authorities, school caterers and local vegetable producers.

Seven prizes will be awarded in total – one each for gold and silver and five available for bronze. The gold winners will receive £1,000 unrestricted school funding, £500 for catering team and a trophy and certificate. Silver will receive £500 unrestricted school funding, £250 for catering team and a trophy and certificate. The five bronze prizes will each win £100 unrestricted school funding and a certificate. The judges will be looking for schools and catering teams working together; a whole school approach including pupil engagement and leadership involvement delivering Eat Them to Defeat Them across the school and wider community. Examples of this include implementing The Great Veg Vote assembly, lunchtime themes or tasting tables, amazing school decorations, parent and carer communication ideas and any novel and unique ideas used to bring the campaign to life.

In addition, caterers will be invited to submit their best rice and veg recipe to win a special Tilda Challenge prize. To enter the 2026 Eat Them to Defeat Them Schools Challenge, please visit EatThemToDefeatThem.com from 2 March.

Commenting on this year’s new challenge, Dan Parker, Chief Executive, Veg Power, said

Commenting on this year’s new challenge, Dan Parker, Chief Executive, Veg Power, said, “We’re really excited to launch our new Eat Them to Defeat Them Schools Challenge this year. Following many successful years of the Caterers’ Challenge, we wanted to evolve this awards programme to reflect the importance of the whole school coming together to implement the campaign. A celebration of schools, pupils and caterers working together to improve children’s diets – we know this will have the greatest impact. Thank you once again to Tilda for its support and we can’t wait to see the entries!”

Annette Coggins, Head of Foodservice at Tilda UK said, “We’re incredibly proud to sponsor the new Eat Them to Defeat Them Schools Challenge for 2026. At Tilda, we believe good food habits start really early and Eat Them To Defeat Them shows how the power of Tilda, schools, caterers and pupils can all work together to make vegetables really exciting and more accessible. By championing a whole school approach and celebrating the creativity of catering teams through the Tilda Rice and Veg challenge we hope to inspire even more children to enjoy healthier, more balanced meals and ultimately eat more VEG.”