Winners announced from Stockport school children healthy menu competition

Over 100 primary school children across Stockport entered a competition run by local business Solutions SK, and Stockport County Community Foundation.

The competition asked primary school children across the borough to design their own healthy school lunch menu, taking into consideration ‘healthy eating choices’.  To help the children think of ideas, representatives from Solutions SK and Stockport County Community Foundation attended several school assembly’s to talk about exercise and food that will help the children with their health, wellbeing, energy and focus.

Whilst choosing the winning menus, (a winner from key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2) the judging panel from Solutions SK and Stockport County were so overwhelmed by the high standard of entries, that they were spoilt for choice.  With this in mind, they decided to also choose three runner-up positions for each Key Stage, to further recognise the hard work that had gone into the entries submitted.

Winners of the competition were Eve Josephine Kershaw, age 7, from St Peters Catholic Primary School in Hazel Grove, and Isabelle Brookes-Mann, age 8, from St Philips RC Primary School, Offerton. (Photos below).

Photo below: Eve Kershaw at St Peters Catholic Primary School with her mum and Matthew Bailey of Stockport County Community Foundation.

Headteacher of St Philips, comments

Since the opening of our new kitchen with Solutions SK in March, the children have been given the opportunity to eat healthy, nutritious meals cooked on site by Kim, our wonderful cook. Our ‘Cooking Club’ enables all children to learn how to prepare healthy meals for themselves and their families. This led to a wonderful response to the recent competition and we were absolutely delighted that one of our children was announced a winner, and another was named a runner up!

Headteacher of St Peters, comments

We are absolutely delighted that one of our children has won the school menu competition with Solutions SK and Stockport County Community Foundation.  This was a fantastic initiative to engage our children and encourage them think about healthy eating and exercise. The children really enjoyed taking part in such a creative competition and were so excited to find out that we had won.

The winning menus Eve’s Menu (photo attached): Baked Chicken with Mash, seasonal vegetables and gravy (gluten free) Tomato and vegetable pasta served with a wholemeal bread roll (v option) Salad Buffet Drinks: Water, milk, Sugar free Blackcurrant/Orange Juice

Desert: Homemade Tropical Fruit Salad, Homemade Fruity Flapjack and low fat yoghurts Why my menu is healthy and why I should win: “My menu contains carbohydrates, protein, vegetables and fruit, all of which give you energy and include all of your recommended 5 a day. None of my menu has been fried and it is all homemade.  I should win because this is a very healthy menu that my friends and I would love and enjoy during school dinner.”

Isabelle’s Menu: Chicken Pasta bake with tomatoes Side dishes of nutritional vegetables, with Desert: Fruit salad frozen yogurt in an biscuit cone.

Why my menu is healthy and why I should win: “My meal includes a healthy balance of all good groups and is great tasting.  I think it would appeal to students who need energy to learn and play.  I also support Stockport County and would love to win.”

Photo below: Isabelle Brookes-Mann at St Philips RC Primary School runner up Emilia Darul, Solutions SK School Cook – Kim Edgar, Stockport County Player – Lewis Montrose, Stockport County Community Foundation Assistant Manager – Matthew Bailey and Solutions SK Quality and Training Lead – Lisa Tottle.

Councillor Fitzpatrick comments on the project,

Many congratulations to all the schools and children which signed up for this competition, which provided them with the opportunity to learn more about healthy eating and putting it into practice. The menus of the winners and runners up look great. Well done to Solutions SK and the Stockport County Community Foundation for organising this excellent initiative.

Jacqueline Cohen, Customer Engagement Manager for Solutions SK, says of the competition,

It’s been a brilliant process and we were overwhelmed with the high standard of entries. It was clear that the children had taken the competition seriously and put so much research, work and effort into designing their menus.

Matthew Bailey, Assistant Community Foundation Manager Stockport County Community Foundation, says,

The team at Stockport County Community Foundation were blown away by the high standard of entries the children sent in.  The children had really taken the time to think about healthy eating and the food they need to eat to achieve this.  We’re so excited to now work with the winners and their families to arrange their prizes and hope they, and the runner ups, are very proud of their achievement.

Winners receive the following prizes:

• A surprise visit to the winners’ school to announce the chosen menu
• Lunch with members of the Stockport County team
• The winning menus being cooked for the whole school
• The winning menu designers gaining a family ticket for any Stockport County game of their choice
• The winning menu designers going onto the pitch at the first game of the next season to meet the team and be presented with a certificate.

Each Runner Up was awarded a certificate and a children’s cook book. Runner ups were as follows Safa Rahman, age 10 – Mersey Vale Primary School Rose Allen, age 6 – High Lane Primary School Harry Helme, age 5 – High Lane Primary School Emilia Darul, age 6 – St Philips RC Primary School Rosie, age 9 – Bolshaw Primary School (Rosie’s family requested only her first name be used in any publicity) Evie Poor,  age 9 – Lark Hill Primary School