Vegies on WA school menus for March Munch

Students eating vegetables

Media Release

Date: 26 February 2020
Media Contact: Ben Somerford
0439 740 590
ben.somerford@cancerwa.asn.au

Only 6% of Aussie kids are meeting recommended daily vegie intake

School kids still aren’t eating enough vegies, so next month WA students will be challenged to eat vegies every day as part of Crunch&Sip’s® March Munch initiative.

The annual March Munch event runs throughout the month, with the concept being that registered WA classrooms/schools will reward their students for eating vegies daily during their Crunch&Sip® break, while incorporating a range of suggested activities and ideas to make vegies fun.

The event is a great way to create healthy habits at the start of the new year with recent data showing that just only 6% of Australian children are meeting the recommended daily vegie consumption of five serves. It is expected that more than 600 classrooms and almost 20,000 students across WA will participate.

The initiative is coordinated by Cancer Council WA’s Crunch&Sip® program. Cancer Council WA’s Schools Nutrition Senior Coordinator Shannon Wright said: “March Munch is one of the strategies being implemented by the Crunch&Sip team to boost vegie intake in Western Australia.

“Registered classrooms will receive an event pack full of helpful resources for teachers to get kids excited about eating vegies every day, including daily activities such as calendar cards, sticker rewards and lesson plans.

“This is our fourth March Munch and over the years we’ve had a lot of positive feedback from teachers and parents about the event and how it engages students, so we really want to make this year’s event as big as ever.”

Last year 13,600 students from 551 classrooms participated in the March Munch, which is open to all WA primary schools.

Registered schools/classrooms will receive an event pack filled with colour-in calendar cards, lesson plans, stickers, prizes and more.

It's easy to participate, by distributing the supplied calendar cards to students and rewarding those that eat vegies with one of the cute stickers provided in the event pack.

Participating classrooms will go into the running to win cool prizes like drink bottles and Crunch&Sip snack boxes.

BACKGROUND

The Crunch&Sip® program has been running in WA for 15 years and provides the opportunity for primary school students to eat vegetables or fruit in class, and sip water throughout the day.

Schools can register to become a Crunch&Sip school here.

Link to photos of school kids eating vegies available here