Making kids eat their vegetables: have we solved the puzzle?

The world today is nothing like it was a century ago, but some things haven't changed a bit, like the complicated relationship between kids and vegetables!

Grandma wasn't a fan of green beans when she was an eight-year-old either, if the stories she tells us are any indication!

Conundrums such as this seem to exist across the generations, and nobody's managed to find a solution yet.

Unless...

One of the Louis Bonduelle Foundation's goals from the very beginning has been to create a better relationship between children and vegetables.

In practice, this has led to efforts throughout the world, efforts that have already produced excellent results!

Getting to know vegetables better

Loving vegetables begins with getting to know them better. It's logical: the unknown is always a little scary, but up close, vegetables aren't so terrifying.

Time for programmes in schools that bring vegetables out of the shadows!

In Russia, the Foundation supports over a thousand schools from Moscow to Volgograd with fun, interactive programmes to help children better understand vegetables.

Playing with your food

Not during a meal, we're all agreed on that,

but beforehand, with an interactive game that allows you to grow your garden step by step. That's what happened in Italy, with the 'Il Gioco di inOrto' programme, one of the Foundation's oldest. By becoming familiar with vegetables, we're already on the road to taming them, and kids will be more likely to enjoy them.

Does this also happen at school? No, even better: in Ikea stores, garden centres, or other stores, while parents do their shopping!

Become an expert

For children, there's immense pride in knowing things that not everyone knows; especially when they steer the world in the right direction.

The Italian programme 'Il Gioco di inOrto' was expanded with a new game centred on waste - learning to use courgette flowers and not just the vegetable, putting skins into the compost bin, etc.

Do we have proof this works?

Yes! Experience has shown us, but we still need the numbers to back it up.

The Louis Bonduelle Foundation therefore decided to measure the link between workshops (cooking, gardening) and vegetable consumption amongst primary school children. This was the Epicalim project.

The initial results have arrived, and the initial observations are already very encouraging...

Our partners for this project were the Research Institute of Hygiene for the school programmes in Russia and the Musée du Légume d'Avignon for the Epicalim project.

More about the Foundation Louis Bonduelle