Cork School takes first prize in National Keep Well Art Competition.
4th class of Gaelscoil Cobh, Co. Cork have won first place in an art competition, aimed to showcase how students across Ireland are keeping well by staying active in the garden and eating well.
For the month of March, Agri Aware’s Incredible Edibles delivered educational and fun activities as part of a National Keep Well campaign and these competitions were run in line with Task 3 of the project – Planting and Growing.
Interactive worksheets featuring key healthy eating and wellbeing advice from Healthy Ireland were made available to schools on IncredibleEdibles.ie since January and were a vital resource to students and teachers during the recent online teaching period.
Schools were then asked to showcase how they were Keeping well, by partaking in the art competition and being as creative with textures, colours and materials. Or, in a video competition, won by 4th class in Tagoat National School, Co. Wexford, keeping in mind the two core themes of Keeping Active and Eating Well.
The Incredible Edibles Keep Well campaign was in conjunction with Healthy Ireland’s Keep Well campaign which is a key part of the Government’s resilience and recovery plan for Living with Covid-19.
This year Incredible Edibles was chosen by Bord Bia to showcase how Irish primary school children are keeping active in the garden and eating well as part of the Government of Ireland’s Keep Well campaign.
Agri Aware’s Incredible Edibles programme is a free, healthy eating and growing project that has been running in Irish primary schools for 13 years. Over 43,000 primary school children and 1,600 schools are taking part in this year’s programme.
Participating schools receive free grow packs that contain everything teachers need to start their own school garden and students have showed excellent resilience and creativity in finding unique ways of learning all about food origin and fresh, Irish produce through online teaching, while preparing to plant their own spring gardens in March.
Speaking about the Incredible Edibles Keep Well campaign, Agri Aware chairman, Alan Jagoe said: “It was an honour for Agri Aware to be chosen by Bord Bia to showcase how resilient Irish children are eating well and keeping active in the garden, as part of Healthy Ireland’s Keep Well campaign. The Keep Well campaign is in line with the ethos of Incredible Edibles, which has been educating Irish school children about the importance of growing and consuming Irish fruit and vegetables for a healthy balanced diet for the last 13 years.
“On behalf of Agri Aware I would like to thank Bord Bia and Healthy Ireland for the opportunity for Incredible Edibles to play a part in the Keep Well campaign. I would also like to thank teachers and students for getting so involved in the campaign in what has been a challenging time for them due to Covid-19 restrictions over the last year. We hope that the campaign has equipped teachers and students with long-lasting knowledge on how they can keep active and well for years to come, as well as lots of fun memories too,” said Mr Jagoe.