Culinary competition included in 2012 Dutch Lady Promotion

By Linda Straker

Students in grades five and six and in all secondary schools are being provided with an opportunity to win prizes for their schools through the 2012 Dutch Lady Milk promotion.

Friesland Campina Export, through local distributor Hubbard’s Agency, is for the second time giving students the chance to take part in a competition where they will write an essay about the health benefits of drinking milk, while food and nutrition students preparing for CXC will, for the first time, participate in a culinary competition.

Manager of Hubbards Agency, Mrs. Margaret Roberts, said at the launch of the promotion last week Wednesday that the essay competition will take the same form as last year, but the only difference is that the student will have to write their essay under supervision from the schools in an allotted time.

“This is to ensure that the students do their own work. A two-week time frame will be given for research before essays are written,” she added, while explaining that the essay competition is open to all students from all grades at the primary level and all forms at the secondary level. The topic for the essay competition is ‘Why should milk be part of the daily diet?’

The essay should be between 350 and 400 words for the primary schools and 500 and 600 words for the secondary school, be hand-written and legible. Every entry must be accompanied with proof of purchase of any size of Dutch Lady Milk Powder. Essays will be judged on health facts, content, grammar, clarity, paragraph, sequence and legibility. A laptop will be the winning prize for the essay competition for both primary and secondary schools. There will also be other prizes such as gift vouchers and appliances for participating students.

Elaborating more on the culinary competition, Mrs. Pamela Courtney, Curriculum Development Officer with responsibility for Home Economics, said that the partnership with the Ministry of Education for the culinary competition will be to enhance students’ preparedness for the CXC practical food and nutrition examinations, and to build self-confidence in students and improve their culinary skills.

In addition, the objectives of the competition are to build awareness of the brand ‘Dutch Lady’ Milk among students and to encourage them to use milk in the preparation of their dishes.

The promotion will run from October 26 to December 18, 2012 and will not only include the student population, but also the general public.