Search for Ireland's next young food entrepreneur launched by GIY and Cully & Sully

Pictured at the launch of the Give Peas a Chance Secondary School Food Entrepreneur Competition is the founder of GIY Michael Kelly and Cully of Cully & Sully. Schools across the country are now invited to take part and applications are being accepted online from February 28th 2017 via http://www.cullyandsully.com/ourgarden

During the visit Cully shared with the students the success story behind one of Ireland’s biggest food businesses and launch an inaugural competition titled Give Peas a Chance.

This initiative aims to foster a spirit of food entrepreneurship in Irish secondary schools and discover Ireland’s next young food entrepreneurs.

Secondary schools across the country are now invited to take part in the Give Peas A Chance competition, which combines food growing and entrepreneurship to engage and inspire students 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 produce.

Through this initiative growing kits will be delivered to 7,500 students across the country.

The kits include everything the students need to grow peas including seeds, pots, soil and plenty of growing tips from GIY.

Students are asked to pair up in order to undertake the challenge.

Michael Kelly founder of GIY said: “This initiative enables students to learn first hand about food enterprise right from the seed onwards. We know that to make good food you need great ingredients and you can’t get better than growing your own.

“We feel that this initiative will help to accelerate even more brilliant food starts ups in our local food system in the future.

“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 said: “We are really hoping to inspire a new generation of food entrepreneurs. Learning at our mother’s 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.”

During Give Peas A Chance 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 homegrown 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, GROWHQ in Waterford on May 25th, 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, 2 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.

Schools and teachers planning to participate in this nationwide competition can now sign up to take part from February 28th 2017 via http://www.cullyandsully.com/ourgarden.