A Better Choice! helps raise money for Royal Children’s Hospital

The Victorian A better choice! team proudly participated in this year’s Run for the Kids event to raise money for Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital.

The event gathered over 20,000 participants who ran, jogged, and walked through the various circuits to raise over $1 million for The Good Friday Appeal.

In partnership with Run for the Kids, A better choice! not only supplied free fruit to all runners, but had a separate marquee filled with giveaways to promote the brand.

Zac Egan, State Program Coordinator for A better choice! explains the program wanted to participate in the charity event for several reasons.

“It is a fun run that raises much-needed funds for the Royal Children’s Hospital, plus it has a huge audience of young families who are supporting a great cause by doing something good for their health,” Zac said.

Zac adds that the event also provided A better choice! with the opportunity to promote the importance of choosing locally grown fresh fruit and vegetables to a large Victorian crowd. Partnering with important events like this aligns with the A better choice! vision, which is to educate consumers about the benefits of shopping at their local fruit and veg shop.

While there, they were able to get their message across by supplying over 20,000 pieces of fruit to participants.

Since the event ended, Run for the Kids has raised over $800,000 in support of the Good Friday Appeal.

Katie Bui, a fruit shop owner at Greens Garden Grocer who attended the event and is part of the A better choice! program, said she took part in the run because she wanted to raise funds for the Royal Children’s Hospital.

“I think I managed to raise around $1,700. I wanted to promote healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle, so I thought I would put that into practice,” she said.

Starting out with her running club, Katie decided to take the long course the event offered. That day she ran 14.5 kilometres, beginning at Docklands and going along the Bolte Bridge, she ended up finishing at Batman Hill Drive.

After completing the lengthy course, Katie made her way over to the A better choice! booth which was set up past the finish line.

“At the end of my run, I grabbed some fruit from them just so I could refuel my body. Everybody was grabbing pieces of fruit after the run, so it was really good to have them there,” she said.

As well as supplying fresh fruit, the A better choice! team had a strawberry and a broccoli mascot to cheer on everyone, both of which were a huge hit with everyone who visited the booth.

Although there was some soreness after the run, Katie was happy she was able to help raise money for such an important charity.

“There’s no better reason to do one of these runs than doing it for kids,” she said.