Big Vegie Crunch a hit among South East Sydney students

An impressive 11,624 children across SESLHD recently joined tens of thousands of primary school students across the state in the Big Vegie Crunch.

The initiative organised by the Healthy Kids Association is an attempt by NSW primary school students to break the record for the highest number of children eating vegetables simultaneously – and to get kids excited about vegetables.

Lisa Moorhouse, Go4Fun and Live Life Well @ School Program Coordinator, said only five per cent of children eat the recommended daily serve of vegetables, according to the Australia Institute of Health and Wellbeing.

“Each day, children spend more than a third of their day at school, providing ample opportunity to positively influence their eating habits,” Ms Moorhouse said. 

La Perouse Public School Principal, Lisa Haller, made the commitment to register her whole school to participate in the Big Vegie Crunch.

“It’s a great way to get the kids involved, and get them enthusiastic about vegetables. It’s a bit like the Guinness Book of Records – it gives them a challenge. It’s a really exciting thing for them to be a part of,” Ms Haller said.

“When students see, collectively, everyone having some fresh fruit and vegetables, they all want to be involved, so it does motivate them to eat more vegetables.”

Students at La Perouse Public School met in the school hall on the day of the Big Vegie Crunch. They spoke about the benefits of eating fruit and vegetables, listened to educational videos and sang and danced until it was time to crunch on their vegetables. After the crunch, students provided SESLHD’s health promotion officers with a tour of their thriving vegetable garden.

Ms Moorhouse said SESLHD was delighted to see the large number of participating students and schools from our District.

“La Perouse was one of 41 primary schools in SESLHD who took part. Across the state there were a remarkable 48,374 student’s crunching simultaneously – almost beating the 2018 record of 50,260. We look forward to contributing to a new record next year!” Ms Moorhouse said.