Competition winners wheelie excited for school meals

Two Monmouthshire pupils won a mountain bike each and got to meet a Welsh mountain bike champion after designing a mascot and logo for primary school meals menus.

As part of a drive to promote school meals and increase the amount of pupils who eat school meals, all primary schools in Monmouthshire were encouraged to enter a competition to design a school meals mascot or logo that reflected ideas of healthy eating and healthy lifestyles.

Sally Blandford, Monmouthshire County council's School Development Officer, said:

"There were over a thousand entries of excellent quality which made judging very difficult.

"After long deliberation two winners were chosen, Alice Gable, aged 11 from Cross Ash Primary School for designing a leek character and Carys Bint, from The Dell Primary School for designing the logo.

"Our two winners were not only able to display a high level of skill in their final designs but also an exciting use of colour and originality.

These qualities, along with their clear understanding of healthy eating and what school meals can offer, really caught the judge's eye".

Both received brand new mountain bikes presented by Anthony O'Boyle.

Anthony is a Welsh Mountain Bike Champion who rides for Mojo Suspension, he is British ranked 4th and is on the selection list for next year's Common Wealth Games.

Anthony said:

"A good healthy, balanced diet is vital if you are to be successful in mountain biking or any other sport, I sometimes find it hard to resist junk food but remind myself that eating the wrong foods can affect my performance. Developing healthy eating patterns from a young age is an excellent starting point and school meals are a good step towards this".

Four runners up were also chosen, Hollie Armitage from Undy Primary School, Sam Vaughan from Castle Park Primary School, Iestyn Hooper-Nelson from Durand Primary School and Meredith Head from Llanfoist Fawr Primary school all won sports vouchers.