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Irish Secondary Schools ‘Rocketing’ to success as winners of Ireland’s Young Food Entrepreneur competition are announced
Today the 7 students of first and second-year from Colaiste Ghobnait on Inisheer Island were crowned Grow to CEO 2018 champions at Grow HQ Waterford. The winning team along with five other teams were chosen from over 7,000 student entries by a panel of judges which included Cully, Sully, Michael Kelly from GIY and special guest judge, wellness and food author Rozanna Purcell. The secondary school finalists from all across the country battled it out at a coveted ‘Dragon’s Den’ style final today at Grow HQ in Waterford.
Earlier in the year each secondary school across Ireland were challenged by GIY and Cully & Sully to enter the ‘Grow 2 CEO’ competition and combine their food growing and entrepreneurial skills by gorwing rocket, following a series of challenges, growing their own food and using it to devise a delicious soup recipe along with a complimentary branding and a marketing for their new enterprise.
Six schools and teams were shortlisted in the challenge, being: Blackwater Community School in County Waterford, Colaiste Ghobnait in County Galway, Cnoc Mhuire in County Longford, Errigal College in County Donegal, St Augustine’s college in County Waterford and St Colman’s Community College in County Cork. All teams (May 17th) presented their business plan at a ‘Dragons’ Den’ style showcase at GIY’s national food education centre ‘GROW HQ’ in Waterford City. The students showcased their business idea to the judges. During the showcase, the judges carried out a series of taste tests and learned the business plans developed by the students.
The winning team of Jackie Ni hUallachain, Aoibhin Ni Chonghaile, Patrick O’Domhnaill, Jack O’Domhnaill, Aoife Ni Chonaill, Alex Burtenshaw and Michael Finn from Colaiste Ghobnait were selected and crowned the overall champions. Commenting on the occasion their teacher Sharon O’Donnell said, “I am so proud of the dedication and the hard work that all of the students put into this competition , their commitment to learning how to and growing their own food is inspirational, the students and I would like to thank the Islanders and the community of Inisheer for sharing their vast knowledge of using local seaweeds and growing food on the island organically and more.”
The winning students were awarded a prize pot of €5,000 which includes a €3,000 food garden for their school on Inisheer Island, an iPad for each of the winning team members, a trip to Ballymaloe for their teacher Sharon O’Donnell.
Commenting at the awards event today, Michael Kelly said, “The competition overall this year has been a phenomenal success, it is really interesting to see the keen level of interest and the vast knowledge that teenagers have about their food – they are far more interested than their peers of ten or twenty years ago. The presentations from the students today and the recipes and tastes could well have come from professional food businesses; the winners Jackie, Aoibhin, Patrick, Jack, Aoife, Alex and Michael with their Rugged Rocket Soup, Wild Atlantic Soda Bread and Aran Goat’s Cheese recipes are very inspiring and I sincerely hope that they consider a career in food or food entrepreneurship in the future.”
Speaking at the final, Cullen Allen of Cully and Sully said, “The students have really blown us away, not just today, but since ‘Grow 2 CEO’ kicked off in April. Their dedication to the campaign and completion of the tasks week in and out was a testament to the students and their supportive teachers. At Cully & Sully, we strongly believe that knowing about where your food comes from and the importance of growing your own is something that everyone should be learning and have the ability to partake in from a young age. We hope that the Grow 2 CEO campaign will encourage more students and schools to make growing and food nutrition a bigger part of the curriculum.
Through the initiative, growing kits were delivered to 7,000 students across the country. The kits included everything the students required in order to grow rocket leaves including seeds, pots, soil and plenty of growing tips from GIY. The winning recipe can be found online at http://www.cullyandsully.com/ourgarden
GIY and Cully & Sully today presented the award of “Grow 2 CEO” Champions to Jackie Ni hUallachain, Aoibhin Ni Chonghaile, Patrick O Domhnaill, Jack O’Domhnaill, Aoife Ni Chonaill, Alex Burtenshaw and Michael Finn from Colaiste Ghobnait with their teacher Sharon Uí Domhnaill on Inisheer Island – Ireland’s newest young food entrepreneurs fought off some tough competition from 7,000 of other student entrants and won with their delicious new Rugged Rocket Soup soup recipe. Pictured are the winners along with the founder of GIY Michael Kelly and Sully of ‘Cully & Sully’ along with the competition’s guest judge Roz Purcell. The winning recipe can be found online via cullyandsully.com/ourgarden – Photo Patrick Browne.
The death has occurred of the former Bishop of Galway, Kilmacduagh and Kilfenora Martin Drennan, six years after he announced his retirement on health grounds. He was aged 78.
The Galway Diocesan Office confirmed the death this (Saturday) afternoon of the Bishop and Apostolic Administrator Emeritus, who oversaw the Diocese for eleven years.
Born on January 2, 1944 in Piltown, County Kilkenny, he studied for the priesthood at Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, from where he was ordained to the priesthood in 1968. His brother Michael is also a priest.
Following his ordination, he continued his studies in Rome where he was awarded a Licentiate in both sacred theology and sacred scripture. He returned to Rome in 1980 to become spiritual director at the Pontifical Irish College for the next five years.
He became a lecturer in sacred scripture at Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, where he continued to teach until his appointment as Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin in 1997 with responsibility for East Wicklow and South Dublin.
Following the retirement of Bishop James McLoughlin, Bishop Drennan was appointed Bishop of Galway and Kilmacduagh and Apostolic Administrator of Kilfenora and he was installed on July 3, 2005 in Galway Cathedral.
Outgoing Cllr Terry O’Flaherty (Ind) is on course to retain her City Council seat – and top the poll in City East.
With 33% of the boxes tallied, Cllr O’Flaherty is polling strongly, particularly in Renmore.
Michael John Crowe is ahead of his running mate Alan Cheevers for the Fianna Fáil vote, according to the early figures, although that could change when Doughiska and Roscam boxes are opened.
The Green Party’s Claire Hillery is on about 7%, with Fine Gael on 10% and Sinn Fein on 5%.
The opening of boxes for the local elections began at 9am this morning in Leisureland when the tallymen (and women) kicked into gear.
As regards the Galway County Council elections, the smaller areas are being opened first which means that the four-seater Connemara North boxes will be first in the pecking order.
It will be followed by Gort-Kinvara (5 seats), Connemara South (5 seats), Athenry-Oranmore (7 seats), Ballinasloe (6 seats), Loughrea (5 seats) and finally Tuam (7 seats).
The boxes in these areas will be opened and tallied in that particular order before being transferred to the Galway Lawn Tennis Club on Threadneedle Road where the counting will commence around mid-morning.
That is when the fun will really begin – although the tallies should give a good indication as to where most of the seats are destined.
As regards the city, the Galway City East boxes were opened first, followed by Galway City Central and finally Galway City West. These votes will be transferred to the Westside Centre by around 11am for counting.
There are 39 seats on Galway County Council to be filled with 18 on Galway City Council. The City Council count is expected to conclude on Saturday night but the County Council count – with seven electoral areas to be filled – could well go into Monday.
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