2025 Great Big Crunch Wrap Up

Since 2008, The Great Big Crunch has been a Canada-wide movement and annual moment of anti-silence where communities from coast-to-coast crunch into apples (or other crunchy fruit or vegetable) to make noise for healthy school food!  

This celebration of healthy eating, local agriculture, and the spirit of our community is open to every school in the City of Hamilton regardless of whether it has a Tastebuds program. Students, teachers, parents, and volunteers at registered schools are each given an apple after assembling in gyms, classrooms, hallways, or outside on the playground. After a countdown, everyone takes a bite into their apple simultaneously to create a big “crunch”!   

This year, Tastebuds Hamilton saw another record level of participation with 65,010 “crunchers” at 130 locations across the city, and over 16,000 pounds of apples delivered by Drummond Farms in Waterdown (69 Concession 5 East, L0R 2H1). These locally grown, delicious apples were once again generously funded by FirstOntario Credit Union. This year also saw the introduction of the “Rap for the App-le” challenge where participants were challenged to record a fun video of themselves highlighting an apple through dance, song, or rap to help celebrate nutritious school food, local agriculture and the spirit of community which is at the heart of The Great Big Crunch! 

Check out the photos and videos (click the link) that were happening during the crunch!