How Veg Power is winning the war on veg and changing the way kids eat

Trying to get kids to eat their five a day can be a losing battle, but a battle that one man is brave to enough to take on. Dan Parker, Chief Executive of Veg Power, and mastermind behind the Eat Them to Defeat Them campaign, joins Stefan Gates to talk about how a campaign to overpower veg has helped to increase vegetable sales by 500 million children’s portions. 

Dan shares his passion and ambition to transform every family’s dinner table into a place of joy, discussing the importance of looking at life through the lens of a child to help children change their bias towards fruit and veg, and  his new seasonal veg campaign which will help a different generation of parents bring up their kids in a more sustainable and healthy way.

About our panel

Dan Parker, Chief Executive, Veg Power

Dan Parker has worked in marketing and advertising for 25 years. As Chief Executive and Executive Creative Director of marketing innovation agency Sponge, he pioneered online, mobile and location marketing for the world’s largest food, restaurant, grocery, media, and technology brands. 

Since 2015 he has consulted on the role of advertising in public health and childhood obesity for UNICEF, EU, OECD, Jamie Oliver, Cancer Research UK and the Department of Health & Social Care.

In 2018 he partnered with The Food Foundation, Baroness Boycott, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Sir John Hegarty to launch Veg Power. Veg Power is a not-for-profit organisation which inspires kids to eat more vegetables. The multi-award winning Eat Them to Defeat Them campaign reaches the homes of 46 million people and the primary schools of 500,000 pupils. The campaign has so far increased vegetables sales by over 500 million children’s portions. In 2021 Veg Power took on its second challenge: to encourage people to buy seasonal British vegetables to reduce their carbon footprint, support British farming and enjoy tastier and more nutritious vegetables.