Pupils from Sharp Lane Primary School in Leeds had a great time making healthy treats and Veg Hero characters on a visit to our development kitchens at Asda Home Office.
It's all part of our fun campaign to educate kids to eat more healthily. The school's close to Asda Middleton and the year four class was invited in by the store's community champion Rachel Cunningham.
Teaching assistant Elaine Birch says the kids had a great time and were inspired by their visit.
Elaine said: "They absolutely loved it as you can see by all massive smiles on their faces – they didn't want to leave."
The youngsters were taught how to make roasted vegetable quesadillas by Asda chefs Mark Richmond and Andy Johnston and, while the wraps were being toasted in the ovens, they got to make their own Veg Superheroes.
Elaine said: "They really enjoyed making the quesadillas – and the chefs were great with them. They were so easy and quick to make and it was very hands-on. They loved it. They were so engaged by the whole experience.
"Some of the Veg Hero creations were amazing! It was so nice to see them using more than potatoes and carrots too, such as radishes and celery!"
Llandro, who's eight, loved his time in the Asda kitchens and especially liked making the Veg Superheroes.
He said: "I made a Supertato with gloves, shoes and apples to protect him."
His classmate Evie, who made a Mrs Supertato, said: "I stuck some eyes on the potato and then made some dark blue eyelashes. It was good fun."
The pupils were able to take their creations home with them and were also given Veg Hero goody bags, which included cress pots.
Chef Mark said it was great to see the children having a fun time.
He said: "Initiatives like this are really good – it's getting children to learn about their five-a-day and to eat healthily which is so important.
"The children have been so creative making their own Veg Heroes – they all look brilliant."
Rachel said: "The children loved making quesilladas using the recipe card from the Veg Superhero pack, and making their own vegetable superheroes. They thoroughly enjoyed their experience!"
The aim of our Veg Heroes initiative is to educate kids on the importance of eating more healthily, with Asda colleagues rallying behind the campaign to help inspire people with innovative ways to encourage children to eat more vegetables.
Our community champions across the country have been holding hands-on vegetable workshops in schools to bring the campaign to life, including teaching children how many portions of vegetables are recommended daily.
We are also supporting the campaign with a range of in-store activities, including pop-up ‘Superhero Veg’ stations, with ‘Keep Em Peeled’ activity sheets for little shoppers – as well as veg progress sheet and stickers available for children to take home and document how many different fruits and vegetables they’ve tried and enjoyed. Recipe cards are also on offer to provide some fun and easy recipes to introduce more vegetables into children’s meals and achieve those five a-day-goals.
Veg Power is on a ten-year mission to turn around vegetable consumption in the UK and get every kid in the UK eating one more portion of veg each day. The campaign comes after research showed that one-third of primary school kids in the UK are overweight or obese, 80% of children don’t eat enough vegetables and 50% of parents say they have given up trying to get their kids to eat five-a-day.
