Armed with a three-year grant of almost £1.4m from The National Lottery Community Fund, The Food Foundation and Veg Power will next month formally launch a new UK-wide campaign and programme with one simple mission: to get people eating more beans, pulses and legumes.
The Food Foundation and Veg Power are the teams behind the highly effective Eat Them To Defeat Them and Peas Please campaigns, which claim to have reached 36m people since 2019, and led to over 1.1bn additional portions of veg being sold in the UK.
They will be working alongside ARK Agency, a strategic and creative agency founded by Mat Goff, former Adam and Eve chief executive, and Mike Wilton, former Anomaly managing director, who will be creating the accompanying digital media campaign.
Together they will be calling on public sector caterers, chefs, retailers, manufacturers, wholesalers, food service companies, youth organisations, and community groups to join them in a ‘bean revolution’ by committing to serve and sell more beans, as well as ‘turbocharging’ the marketing and promotion of beans.
On top of encouraging participation from national food businesses, other activities will include a schools programme and outreach, running student-focused activities with Kent Students’ Union, and working with Birmingham City Council to activate the campaign at a local level.
In the process, the campaign aims to reduce the impact of diets on greenhouse gas emissions, and create a long-term shift towards healthier and more sustainable dietary habits.
The campaign believes that with headlines showing food prices going up at a faster rate again, increasing the consumption of beans, lentils and pulses will provide a ‘simple and affordable way’ to get people eating a healthier diet and upping their intake of important nutrients.
At the same time, organisers feel that with more and more people looking for ways to eat sustainably while avoiding ultra processed foods, beans have the answer.
Rebecca Tobi, head of food business transformation with The Food Foundation, says: “Beans are the ultimate ‘superfood’, and a win-win-win when it comes to health, environmental and affordability goals.
“So we are incredibly excited to be kicking off this three-year programme of work thanks to the support of The National Lottery Community Fund.
“With rapidly rising levels of diet related disease in the UK, and the impacts of climate change increasingly being felt, now is the perfect moment for a campaign to boost bean consumption.
“Beans should be seen as a hero food for all businesses looking to meet Net Zero goals and cater to rising consumer demand for healthy, affordable foods, and we are keen to work with businesses to ensure beans are much more appealing and available in the supermarket aisle and when out and about.”
And Dan Parker, chief executive of Veg Power, adds: “At Veg Power we’re dedicated to making healthy, sustainable eating easier so we can’t wait to get started on this campaign to get the UK eating more beans.
“Not only will beans support an improvement in dietary health but they are also good for our planet and stretched budgets.
“We’ll be contributing our expertise to run the social media and influencer campaign, developing fresh and exciting creative ideas and running a schools’ programme in 750 UK schools to get children eating more beans.”
The campaign coincides with new figures from the Eating Better alliance and The Food Foundation that have found that 73% of people agree beans are good for them, and 62% agree they are tasty.
However, these positive attitudes are not yet being translated into action, with still only 24% say they eat beans two or more times a week.
And when it comes to cooking beans, only 42% of people say they feel confident about doing it, even though two-thirds of the (66%) agreed that beans were easy to prepare and cook.
That is why campaign organisers believe that these responses reveal that there is ‘huge potential’ for beans to form a more significant part of our diets.
Mel Eaglesfield, the National Lottery’s director of funding strategy, innovation, says: “There are real benefits to eating more beans for our health and the environment, as well as our pockets. And with food prices going up, there’s even more of an incentive to add more beans to the dishes we make.
“This is why projects like this are so important, as they provide communities with the tools and information they need to make informed choices, both for themselves and for the environment.
“The National Lottery Community Fund supports communities across the UK to become more environmentally sustainable, so we’re delighted to fund this initiative through our Climate Action Fund.
“It’s a perfect example of an ambitious partnership project that links climate action with everyday life, benefitting people and the planet.”
The campaign will also be partnering with Beans Is How - a global campaign with the aim of doubling global consumption of beans, peas, lentils and other pulses by 2028.
The Beans is How coalition, which is backed by 70 countries and more than 120 partners, acts through the SDG2 Advocacy Hub.
Paul Newnham, chief executive of SDG2 Advocacy Hub, adds: “Through the power of collective action, Beans is How amplifies and makes visible the importance of beans as a simple, affordable solution to our global health, climate and cost of living challenges.
“Beans and other pulses are a small but mighty food with the power to transform diets and food systems.
“Through the Beans is How coalition, we are working across more than 70 countries to double bean consumption by 2028, showing how this humble ingredient can drive healthier diets, affordable nutrition, and climate resilience.
“In partnering with The Food Foundation to bring this global mission to life in the UK, we hope to demonstrate that when chefs, retailers, schools and communities act together, beans can become a cornerstone of both better public health and a more sustainable food future.”
Other partners coming on board to support the launch of the UK beans campaign include the University of Kent and Birmingham City Council.
Professor Iain Wilkinson, associate pro-vice chancellor and co-lead on the University of Kent’s ‘Civic Mission on the Right to Food’ explained why it had decided to get involved.
“We are delighted to be part of this project to promote more bean consumption in the UK. It makes good sense both as means to promote good nutritional health and to advance more environmentally beneficial and sustainable approaches to agricultural farming.
“Beans are the central ingredient in many traditional and iconic dishes in world gastronomy, and we plan to celebrate this with students and staff on our campuses.
“We will be committed to build communities of nourishment and hospitality through the promotion of bean cuisines. We look forward to sharing our experiences and learning.”
And councillor Mariam Khan, cabinet member for health and social care with Birmingham City Council, adds: “I am very proud that the work we started through our Full of Beans campaign at Bring it on Brum! is growing to be part of a national food movement.
“We are excited to be involved in the next stage of this journey. Not only are beans nutritious, sustainable, and affordable, but they are also used in dishes from cultures across the world, making Birmingham’s incredible, diverse population perfect for local work as part of this national campaign.”
And the Ark Agency, the creative force behind the award-winning VegPower drives that have successfully increased vegetable consumption among young people, will be lending its expertise to the campaign.
The agency’s Matt Goff, says: “I’ve had the privilege of working up close with The Food Foundation and VegPower before, so I know the kind of behaviour change they deliver.
“This new challenge is exactly the sort that we founded ARK Agency to address and the chance to work with the team again was almost too good to be true.
“The Eat Them to Defeat Them campaign sets a very high bar in terms of marketing effectiveness, but records are there to be broken. We are looking forward to getting the whole nation inspired to eat more beans.”