Sammy Strawberry picks Blandford winner from seven Dorset schools

The Dorset Waste Partnership (DWP) asked children aged 7-11 years from seven Dorset schools to take part in the competition that challenged children to create a recipe with at least one component of the dish being created from leftovers. The winner, Harrison Strange, was picked by DWP’s very own Sammy Strawberry.

Every entrant won a certificate, and each school was asked to judge one winner who received a prize. The DWP took professional photographs of the winning seven recipes, which were then made into recipe cards and inserted into a colourful cookbook folder. Harrison was presented with a goody bag and over £200 of cooking equipment for use at the school.

Part of DWP’s ‘Love Food Hate Waste’ campaign, the competition aimed to raise awareness amongst children and parents/carers about the environmental and financial cost of wasting food, encouraging everyone to create inventive and delicious meals out of leftovers.

Dorset County Councillor David Walsh of the DWP’s Joint Committee, said: “This competition has been a tremendous success and it’s great to see how the school children have used their culinary creativity to come up with some truly delicious dishes.

“We all like to indulge ourselves during the summer period, but the average family could save around £700 a year simply by throwing away less food. The competition was a fun approach to showing both children and their families one of the ways this could be achieved and we hope to open it up to more Dorset schools in the future.

“I’d like to thank everyone who has been involved and congratulate all the winners. I’m looking forward to trying some of the delicious recipes at home myself!”