Veggie Run shortlisted for national award

The awards, run by the Local Government Chronicle, are the most distinguished awards ceremony for the local government sector. The winner will be announced in London on 13 March 2019.

HES Catering Services launched Veggie run as part of its healthy living campaign targeted at children aged 4-11 years old.

It is the first council-created app in England to educate Havering children about healthy eating, by encouraging them to dodge unhealthy foods through gameplay.

Councillor Robert Benham, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, Learning and Education, said:

“I am very proud that Havering Council has been recognised through the LGC Awards 2019 for developing such an innovative healthy living campaign for children.

“Veggie Run links to the Council’s healthy school catered lunch offer, and within one academic term an additional 136,363 healthy school meals were consumed by children aged four to 11 years old across the borough. The campaign has evolved after gaining support from Change4life, and has now partnered with the premiership West Ham United Foundation to deliver healthy living learning to over half the schools in the borough.”

The Veggie Run app presents the newly created ‘Crunch Bunch’ team, a range of personalised health characters who link to the borough’s healthy school catered meal offer.

Through digital gameplay, pupils and schools in Havering can win tangible sporty prizes such as bikes and coaching sessions.

Since its launch in April 2018, there has been a 14 percent increase in school catered meals uptake, and the app has been downloaded approximately 20,000 times.

You can download Veggie Run from the Apple and Google Play stores.