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The nationwide search to find the next stars of the food industry was launched on Tuesday.
Cully & Sully, along with Grow It Yourself (GIY), launched the competition ‘‘Give Peas a Chance’’ to foster a spirit of food entrepreneurship in Irish secondary schools and discover Ireland’s next young food entrepreneurs.
Secondary schools can now apply for the initiative which combines food growing and entrepreneurship.
The aim is to inspire students, who are being asked to pair up for the competition, to grow their own peas and to devise a soup recipe using what they have grown to come up with a product, which Cully & Sully will then produce.
Prize pot of €5,000
Growing kits will be delivered to 7,500 students across the country, including everything the students need to grow peas including seeds, pots, soil and plenty of growing tips from GIY.
Students will be allocated a series of challenges and in the final phase they will be asked to file the details of their own ‘‘ReciPEA For Success’’ using their home-grown peas as inspirations for a brand new soup recipe.
A number of these student ‘‘reciPEAS’’ will then make the shortlist and the students will be invited to a Dragon’s Den-style pitch scenario at the home of GIY, the GROW HQ in Waterford, on 25 May 2017 where a winning team of two will be selected and crowned Give Peas A Chance champions.
The winning students will be awarded a prize pot of €5,000 which includes a €3,000 food garden for their school, two iPads for the winning team of two students and the brand new winning soup recipe will be produced by Cully & Sully and served at the GIY café, GROW HQ.
Experience in the food business
Michael Kelly, founder of GIY, said the initiative “will help to accelerate even more brilliant food startups in our local food system in the future”.
Kelly said: “We’re excited to offer a real opportunity to young students across the country to gain hands-on experience in all segments of the food business from growing to recipe development to ingredient and nutritional listings and pitching their very own product. It’s going to be a great learning experience.”
Cullen Allen of Cully & Sully added: “Learning at our mothers’ kitchen tables gave us our passion for good food and we’re grateful for that every day. We hope to see that passion grow in these junior entrepreneurs.
“Pea soup may seem simple but with the creativity and ingenuity that we know Ireland’s young people have, we can’t wait to see what they come up with.”
Schools and teachers can sign up to take part here.
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