Winners of UFU 2017 schools competition announced

The competition kindly sponsored by Asda was open to all nursery, primary and special schools across Northern Ireland.

Pupils were asked to put their creative skills to the test around the theme, ‘Eating Healthy Local Food’ with a range of prizes up for grabs.

This year, the winning schools will also visit their nearest participating open farm on Friday, June 16th to learn more about the ‘farm to fork’ journey.

With over 2,500 entries received, this year’s competition was extremely difficult 
to judge and select the winners.

“Our objective was to engage with the kids and get them thinking about farming and how the food they eat gets to their plate and the hard work that goes into producing this food,” said UFU deputy president Ivor Ferguson.

“The standard of all the entries make it clear the considerable amount of time and work that both the pupils and teachers put in to this competition and I would like to thank everyone that took part this year,” he said.

Joe McDonald, Asda NI corporate affairs manager commented: “As a proud sponsor of the schools’ competition, it was fantastic to see such a large number of entries this year – with pupils from both urban and rural areas across Northern Ireland submitting their artwork.

“As a committed supporter of Northern Ireland’s agri-food sector through Asda’s local supply base, the theme of the competition was particularly important.

“‘Eating Healthy Local Food’ encouraged pupils to think about where their food comes from and how it gets from farms to their forks via a wealth of local food and drink producers.”

The winners of the 2017 ‘Eating Healthy Local Food’ schools competition is as follows:

Special school- Caelainn, Mitchel House

Nursery- Declan Garland, Holy Child Nursery School

KS1- Max Bates, St Patrick’s Primary School, Glenariff

KS2- Niamh Lyons, Kircubbin Integrated Primary School

The runners-up of the 2017 ‘Eating Healthy Local Food’ schools competition is as follows:

Special School- Leah Savage, Beechlawn School

Nursery – Poppy Lour Kenny, Ballysally Nursery School

KS1- Freya Flanagan, St Patrick’s Primary School, Ballynahinch

KS2- Stephen McIlmoyle, Rasharkin Primary School

If you missed out on entering the competition, you can still visit a participating open farm. It’s free.

Simply visit www.openfarmweekend.com for more information.