Wiltshire school children lead the way in food design competition

Primary school children from across the UK were invited to take part in a competition to design a new member of 'The Jackets', a jacket potato menu devised by school meal provider Sodexo, aiming to encourage children to think about what they eat. The children were given an outline of a jacket potato and asked to draw and colour their chosen filling and then design a body to go with the jacket. The first prize went to Collette Hillcoat-Searle (11), from Walwayne Court School in Trowbridge, who designed a jacket potato filled with rice, cucumber, red pepper and carrot. Her design, which is designed as a musician playing lots of different instruments, has been named 'Jingle Jangle Wiggle and Waggle' and will join the existing members of The Jackets, who are 'Explorer' (sweet and sour chicken), 'Tasty' (cheese and beans) and 'Hot' (chilli beef). Other entries included a jacket filled with meatballs and cheese, designed as a footballer and called 'Footie Spud' and a jacket filled with coronation chicken, designed as a queen and named 'Royal Jacket.' Collette has won £500 worth of vouchers to buy a mountain bike, courtesy of Unilever Foodsolutions who sponsored and judged the competition. Unilever also awarded a Nintendo Wii, Wii fit and £50 of games vouchers to the second prize winner and iPod shuffles to 50 runners up. Sharon Gray, Sodexo contract manager for Wiltshire schools, said: "I am thrilled to see that Wiltshire schools took the lead in this competition, the children came up with some excellent designs and the competition standard was really high. I am looking forward to seeing Collette's design on the menu next term." Bev Kenyon, head teacher at Walwayne Court School, said: "The whole school was thrilled to hear about Collette's good news in an assembly this week. They felt that Collette's design was innovative and reflected her many creative talents. A fantastic end to the school year - thank you."