Local students find Food for Thought
Friday 27 June 2025
Secondary schools from across the Borough have taken part in Mid and East Antrim Borough Council’s ‘Food for Thought’ competition which aims to promote food sustainability as part of wider STEM based Activate Your Curiosity programming with local manufacturers, that includes the now annual Brian Cox Summer School.
The competition asked students to design a sustainable food production logo which would be printed on t-shirts for the winning students to wear to their study visit at the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) at their Greenmount Campus in Antrim – their prize for entering the competition.
The Greenmount Campus study visit included a tour by CAFRE staff of their land-based engineering facilities and a Grow Careers walk and talk tour around horticultural facilities, landscaped and walled gardens, and the glass houses with ‘hands-on’ interactive activities for the students including planting and garden design.
Mayor of Mid and East Antrim, Councillor Jackson Minford, said:
“The ‘Food for Thought’ competition highlighted that it's important to find food production methods that are better for the planet and for us.
“I would like to congratulate winners Ava Grettens from St Killan’s College, Carnlough and Emily Donnelly from St Louis Grammar, Ballymena. Both the students created logos that show a real understanding of food sustainability and a bold and well thought out design.
“The runners up were five Year 9 students from Ulidia Integrated College, Carrickfergus, and I would like to thank them for taking part.
“On behalf of Mid and East Antrim Borough Council, I would also like to thank Greenmount Campus for providing a fantastic educational and fun day out for the students.”
Secondary schools across the Borough were provided with a teacher’s resource booklet developed Council’s Museum and Heritage Service that traced the history of farming in the Ballymena area.
Teaching resources also included a short film on climate change created by Armagh Observatory and Planetarium based on their 150 years of meteorological records, and a video by the Ulster Farms Union explaining how local farmers are adapting to sustainable methods in how they raise animals and grow crops.
The competition-winning t-shirts were printed by local company Rhuban Design, a family-run business based in Whitehead, who specialise in ethically sourced, sustainable, eco-friendly print and clothing.