Kids are great at eating all types of fruit but did you know that only around 5% of children in NSW eat enough vegetables each day.
In an effort to change this statistic, Canowindra Public School took part in the The Big Vegie Crunch during Vegetable Week last Thursday 4th April at 10am. Vegetable Week and The Big Vegie Crunch is an annual health promotion event run in NSW primary schools in Term 1. The event is part of the Crunch & Sip NSW program and is funded by NSW Health.
With delicious carrots, capsicum, lettuce and cucumber generously donated by Lawrences IGA, a small group of parents kindly volunteered their time to cut up the vegetables into separate cups for around 220 students at the school. “Thanks must go to the P&C and the parents and grandparents who have come here today to cut the vegetables up and deliver them to each classroom,” said Peta Laurie from Canowindra Public School.
As The Big Vegie Crunch took place you could hear all sorts of comments from the students “This is yummy” “I love capsicum!” and “Can we eat it yet?”
This year the students from Canowindra Public School joined with tens of thousands of other primary school students from across NSW to all crunch on vegies at the same time and attempt to break the 2018 record. At the same time this experience will increase students’ knowledge, exposure and positive attitudes towards the vegetables.
Katie Booth from the Healthy Kids Association, said “It is recommended that kids between the ages of 4 and 12 eat around five serves of vegies each day. There are a lot of reasons why so many kids are not eating enough – perhaps they don’t have access, they don’t like the taste, they get bored with the lack of variety, or they simply lack the knowledge to make good choices about food.”