Local children from Highcliffe St Marks Primary School and Mudeford Primary School swept the board with prizes at the recent Highcliffe Revival Food Festival. Over 75 entries were received from the schools and were displayed during the recent Food Festival in the Methodist Hall demonstration theatre.

The competition organised by Christchurch Food and Wine Festival Education Trust invited the children to create a healthy recipe using a variety of fruit and vegetables. They were then asked to create a piece of artwork where at least one of the fruit or vegetables were shown in a 3D picture, diary of photographs or some soft sculpturing. They were also asked to use at least two Fair Trade products.

Organiser Mary Reader who is a trustee of the CFFET and Chairman of the Festival said ‘The competition is now well established and we are constantly surprised at the imagination and skill shown by the children. We launch the competition during our primary school cookery days which we hold each year as a follow on to the workshops that we run on healthy eating. The entries this year really were excellent and were judged by members of our committee and local chefs.  In fact there were so many good entries that we decided to award extra prizes’.

The committee awarded a total of ten prizes and they were presented by the Mayor of Christchurch Councillor Trish Jamieson at the end of the Festival day.

The winners were Francesca Tyrer Bragg with her Tropical Fruit Lentil Dhal, Elizabeth Proctor with Fair Trade artwork designed with rice, Helen Ogden with Fruity Caribbean chicken, Emily Hills with Quinoa Risotto, Alice Dyer Smith with Chicken Fajita kebabs, Eleonor Timmings with Sea Shell Surprise, Callum Harris with Lime and chilli Traffic Light vegetable skewers, Matthew Roache with Tandori Pepper, Scarlett Hall with Antiguan Pork chops with bacon wrapped banana and Harleigh Jenkins with Thai style Wonton Soup.

All of the winners received Argos vouchers ranging from £40 to £10.