This project has now ended. Stay updated on each of the partner’s veg activities by subscribing to their newsletter:

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Peas Please launched in 2017 with a clear mission. We want to make it easier for everyone in the UK to eat more veg.

Peas please - bowl of peas

To do this we bring together partners from across the food system – from farmers and retailers, to restaurant chains, caterers and manufacturers – all with the common goal of increasing vegetable consumption, with a particular focus on low income groups and children.

Shifting dietary habits is never easy, but we aim to change this by working with a variety of different actors from across the food system to do so.

We are seeking to address the shortcomings of the many healthy eating campaigns that have previously tried (rather unsuccessfully) to increase the UK's vegetable consumption by focusing on education alone, instead of working to make vegetables more readily available, accessible and appealing.

Why are veg so important? Well, most of us know that vegetables are good for us.

But we’re still not eating enough of them. Veg are the golden thread connecting diets that are both healthier and more sustainable, and there would be huge benefits for our health, the environment, and the UK’s economy if we were all able to hit the recommendations for vegetable consumption.

Find out more on the history of Peas Please here.

There are five peas in our Peas Please pod:

  1. Pleasure: Making vegetables delicious whenever we eat them
  2. Producer: Growing vegetables sustainably at all scales of production 
  3. Price: Making vegetables affordable at a price that works for both producers and consumers 
  4. Placement: Giving vegetables ore prominence in shops and on menus, and increasing the number of places to buy vegetables in town and cities; and 
  5. Products: Developing new ways of getting vegetables into what we buy and eat every day

What we do

We work to make veg more available, accessible and affordable by working with a range of different partners and organisations.

Working with businesses: Peas Please pledgers

We develop, support and monitor commitments from organisations working in the food system to grow, serve and sell more vegetables. To date our community of Peas Please pledgers is over 100 strong and achieving some remarkable things in supporting the UK to eat more veg.

Find out more about our Veg Pledgers and supporters.

Working with citizens: our Veg Advocates

We work with 180 citizens from across the UK – our ‘Veg Advocates’ – who are passionate about changing the food system so that the UK becomes a truly veg-eating nation, acting as individual agents of change within their local communities. The Veg Advocates help both us and our pledgers by feeding their own lived experiences of accessing and buying veg into the Peas Please programme.

Find out more about the Veg Advocates here.

Advocating for system change: policy work

We focus on three specific policy areas that support access to veg – particularly for vulnerable and low income groups – and look to safeguard the future vegetable supply chain in the UK.

 

Healthy Start and Best Start Foods

HS

These Government schemes aim to act as a nutritional safety net by providing low income families and young pregnant women with funds to spend on milk, pulses, fruit and veg. Peas Please works to advocate for increased uptake of the scheme and to facilitate support for the scheme among UK retailers.

Find out more about the scheme here.

 

The Fruit and Vegetable Alliance

FVALLIANCE

Peas Please are founding members of The Fruit and Vegetable Alliance UK, a diverse group of producer organisations who are unified by a desire to get the nation eating more fruit and vegetables. The Alliance has five working groups - of which Peas Please leads the group on consumption - and feed into Defra’s Edible Horticulture Roundtable.

Find out more about the Alliance here.

 

School food

school food

We work with school caterers to ensure more and better quality veg is served with every school meal, and advocate for improved school food and procurement standards across the four nations that include a recommendation for school meals to include two portions of veg.

Find out more about our work on school food.

Our sister campaigns

VP

Veg Power uses creative advertising and communications to inspire kids to adopt vegetable loving habits that they will keep for life, and in turn share with their children. You might have seen their Eat Them to Defeat Them Campaign on TV already.

Find out more about Veg Power here.

 

Veg Cities

Veg Cities is a feature campaign of Sustainable Food Places, led by food and farming charity Sustain in partnership with the wider Peas Please initiative. Veg Cities is a campaign connecting organisations and communities across the UK with the aim of getting local areas growing, cooking, serving and saving more veg.

Find out more about the campaign here.

Project Partners

The Food Foundation

The Food Foundation is a charity working to tackle the challenges facing the UK’s food system. Our vision is a sustainable food system which delivers health and wellbeing for all, using surprising and inventive ideas to catalyse and deliver fundamental change in the food system by building and synthesising strong evidence, shaping powerful coalitions, harnessing citizens’ voices and driving progress with impactful communications. We continually identify new opportunities for action, and trial new levers for change.

Nourish Scotland

Nourish Scotland is a Civil Society Organisation campaigning on food justice issues at a local, national, and international level. We believe that tasty and nutritious food should be accessible to all, and should treat workers and the environment fairly.

Food Sense Wales

Food Sense Wales aims to influence how food is produced and consumed in Wales, ensuring that sustainable food, farming and fisheries are at the heart of a just, connected and prosperous food system.

Founded in 2018, Food Sense Wales was established to drive forward a cross-sector approach to the food system in Wales.  It works with communities, organisations, policymakers and Government across Wales to create a food and farming system that is good for people and good for the planet. 

Food Sense Wales strongly believes that the environment; health and wellbeing; social justice, and the economy should be integrated into all policy thinking in Wales. This ‘food in all policies’ approach can be achieved through research, cross sector collaboration and by mobilising a Wales Good Food Movement, increasing public awareness of food issues and encouraging widespread participation in food-related activity.  

Food Sense Wales is helping to develop this Good Food Movement by delivering a number of food-related programmes across Wales – many as part of UK partnerships – including Peas Please; Sustainable Food Places and Food For Life Get Togethers.

A fund within the Cardiff & Vale Health Charity, Food Sense Wales is hosted by the Cardiff and Vale Public Health team and is supported by a range of funding partners. 
 

Food NI

Food NI provides a single promotional voice for Northern Ireland’s food and drink. We work to enhance the reputation of Northern Ireland’s food and drink through the Taste of Ulster and Taste the Greatness messages. We are a company limited by guarantee, formed voluntarily by a consortium of food sector representatives, to develop the positive identity for high quality food from Northern Ireland.

Belfast Food Network

Belfast Food Network (BFN) tackles some of Belfast’s most pressing social, economic and environmental challenges including poverty, health inequalities, social isolation, low educational attainment, environmental damage and economic growth through food. BFN is a founding member of Sustainable Food Cities and since 2014 has established a broad network of 67 organisations that are taking a joined up approach to transforming our food culture and food system. The BFN helps people and places share challenges, explore practical solutions and develop best practice on key food issues.

Background Pattern

Peas Please Newsletter

Sign-up here for all the latest vegtastic news on what we’ve been up to.

Get in touch

Email the Peas Please team to find out about making a pledge for more veg: peaspleasestakeholders@gmail.com

With thanks to our funder

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