Whirlpool UK Appliances Limited, the home of Hotpoint, has announced the winners of its ‘Moments Not To Be Wasted’ competition. Moments Not To Be Wasted is an initiative that aims to educate children and their families on sustainable and ethical food consumption. The project concluded with a competition, which saw Atelier 21 Future School in West Sussex, Colindale Primary School in London and Holy Family Catholic Primary School in Manchester crowned joint winners.

The latest phase of Whirlpool UK’s Moments Not To Be Wasted project, which launched in October 2021, was designed to provide primary schools with the tools to inspire children and their families to develop their relationships with food, including raising their awareness of food selection, preservation and consumption. Tailored towards children aged between six and 11 years old and their families, participating schools were invited to access a range of educational materials, including activities, games, teaching resources and much more.

To further support teachers, Whirlpool UK organised several laboratory sessions in schools across the country, educating classes on the five stages of the food supply chain, while engaging children with a variety of interactive games and experiments.

At the end of the project, schools were invited to enter the Talent Kitchen contest, in which entrants were asked to share their ideas for a sustainable diet in an original and creative way, while demonstrating social and environmental awareness of the impact of food waste. Atelier 21 Future School, Colindale Primary School and Holy Family Catholic Primary School have been crowned joint winners of the contest, each receiving £1,000 worth of kitchen appliances for their school.

Among the entries submitted by students from the winning schools were a range of posters, comic book strips, games, leaflets and illustrations, demonstrating the knowledge and understanding of sustainable and ethical food consumption that the children received thanks to their participation in the project. One school even created a delicious ‘no waste’ pasta recipe, recording video clips of the students explaining the research, development and preparation stages of the process, in addition sharing images of them tasting their dish.

Ian Moverley, Communications Director, Whirlpool UK Appliances Limited says: “We are delighted to announce the winners of our Moments Not To Be Wasted competition. The judges had an incredibly difficult job this year, as all of the entries were highly artistic and informative. We were particularly impressed with the submissions received from the three winning schools, as they indicated that the children had developed clear knowledge and understanding during their time engaging with the project, in addition to demonstrating a wealth of imagination and creativity too.

“We are incredibly proud that, since establishing the Moments Not To Be Wasted project in 2020, over 600 primary schools have been involved, and we even offered virtual lessons during the Covid-19 pandemic to ensure that children didn’t miss out. We have a long-standing commitment to the environment at Whirlpool UK and, as the issue of food waste becomes more prominent, we are committed to changing attitudes and behaviours towards sustainability in the kitchen through the education of our young people.”