LEAN GREEN COOKING MACHINES
The One Good Idea is a National Campaign aimed at Post primary school students to set up and run a campaign that raises an issue based on either Climate Change or Energy Efficiency. Each group has to choose one of these and pick a topic in association with the main ideas. The groups must then begin to research their topics and fill out a project pack based on their project. The next stage of the campaign is having 100 teams picked from across Ireland to activate their campaign. They must try to raise as much awareness as possible regarding their project. Another aspect of the campaign is to speak to experts and design merchandise. Each group must try sell themselves as to insure their campaign is reaching the target audience. The Final stage of the campaign is between 20 teams from across Ireland based in Dublin castle. The final groups must present their project, results and plans to One Good Idea organisers. The winners will then be selected and featured with the SEAI (Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland). The winners also win a few extra prizes for their school ,along with some things for themselves..
What is our campaign about?
We are Emily Purtell, Julie Hamilton and Eimear Reilly, the Lean Green Cooking Machines. Our project is based on promoting buying locally grown & seasonal produce and cooking energy efficiently. We want people to support their local farmers and suppliers by buying the vegetables and fruits they need at local markets ,especially if the produce ion supermarkets are imported from foreign countries and not from Ireland. Not only is it cheaper to do so, but it also creates jobs in the local area which reduces emigration. The main reason that we are stressing the importance of this topic though, is because buying local produce also helps to reduce food miles which cuts down on the amount of harmfull CO2 emmissions that we as a nation release into the atmosphere every day. The less distance travelled also keeps the quality of food at its best , making it both healthier and more tastey for the consumer.
Our project is also based on promting the ways in which the average person can very easily cook their locally grown produce in an eco-friendly and energy efficient way. If people simply began to think about their cooking and make slight changes to what the cook and how they cook it, we could change our world for the better.
How have we been reaching our target audience & what have we done so far?
Our way of reaching our target audience - our peers - was to connect with them on a fun level. Firstly we designed and created a seasonal produce calendar. Each month has recipe incorporating the vegetables or fruit that is in season for that time of year. We phtotographed all the pictures ourselves and used only local produce when cooking each of the dishes. We thought this was a fun and creative way to make our peers more aware of what local & seasonal produce is. We are in the progress of printing more coppies for our peers and our home economics classes. Along with the calendar, we also designed two sets of leaflets. One based on local produce, including a couple of energy efficient recipes and tips, and the other on anything and everything you need to know about energy efficient cooking. These were very useful to both us and the home economics students that we had a cooking class with.This cooking class brought all of the elements of our project together and by distributing both sets of leaflets to the class, we could explain this to the girls.
During all of this, we have also contacted and met up with a lot of people in relation to our project. This included Donal Skehan & Neven Maguire (two famous Irish chefs), Maureen Gahan (head of Bord Bia's "Just Ask" campaign) and Trevor Sargent (former TD and a firm believer in locally produced goods - think globally, act locally). With helpful tips, recipes and advice from them, we have made our project into a worthwile campaign that we are both proud of and interested in.
We are now one of the 20 groups have been chosen to progress through into the finals and will attend the finals in Dublin Castle on the 3rd of May. So cross your fingers and continue to Cook The Food, Not The Climate!