110,000 secondary school students and teachers jumped on the healthy eating bandwagon with their enrollment in the Gardenia #RollingHealthyWithRollUpWraps Healthy Eating competition supported by the Ministry of Education alongside Gardenia Bakeries (KL) Sdn. Bhd. The program drew its curtains today by announcing the winners in the program’s closing ceremony which was witnessed by Zainudin Mohamad, Education Deputy Director (Student Development Sector) of the State Education Department of Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, and Lavinia Anthony, Marketing Manager, Gardenia Bakeries (KL) Sdn. Bhd. Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Bukit Baru, Melaka was named champion after battling among 100 schools across Peninsular Malaysia in coming up with the most creative healthy recipe using the Gardenia Roll-Up Wraps.
“A healthy body starts with a healthy plate. The Gardenia #RollingHealthyWithRollUpWraps Healthy Eating program is a good effort to inculcate healthy eating habits at such an early stage in life. This is the stage where they start to experience firsthand how to prepare their own meals. So, this is the best time to familiarise them with the Malaysian Food Pyramid and the Malaysian Healthy Plate as suggested by the Ministry of Health,” said Zainudin.
The Gardenia #RollingHealthyWithRollUpWraps Healthy Eating program received supportive participation from a total of 100 schools from the Central, North, South, and East Coast regions. According to Lavinia, one of the components of the program is to constantly remind the students of the benefits and guidelines of healthy eating. Throughout the program, informational posters and banners were placed around the school compound to instill this healthy eating habit.
“Apart from manifesting healthy eating habits, Gardenia Roll-Up Wraps intend to stimulate creativity while coming up with the best recipes and at the same time, brushing up on their life skills including cooking skills and teamwork,” added Lavinia.
A teacher and three students from each school teamed up to create a nutritious dish using the Gardenia Roll-Up Wraps. Based on the theme ‘Healthy Eating Habits’, the team curated the recipe and recorded its preparation process in the form of an interesting video and submitted it along with the report for evaluation. As for the individual category, any members of the participating secondary schools stood a chance to win this category. Rules and guidelines were the same but the only difference is the video for individual categories was uploaded on social media with the hashtag #RollingHealthyWithRollUpWraps for evaluation. 10 individual winners were selected with a prize of RM100 each.
Eight schools made it to the final round. The Schools Include Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Paka, Terengganu; Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Bandar Puteri Jaya, Kedah; Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Panchor, Negeri Sembilan; Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Seksyen 9, Shah Alam; Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Sultan Ismail, Terengganu; Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Bukit Baru, Melaka; Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Syed Sirajuddin, Perlis; and Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Seri Saujana, Kuala Lumpur.
The first prize went to Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Bukit Baru, Melaka with RM3,000. Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Paka, Terengganu won second prize with RM2,000 and Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Syed Sirajuddin, Perlis won the third prize with RM1,500. Apart from the remaining 5 schools which made it to the final round brought home RM500 each as a consolation prize.
“Like all other Gardenia programs, good virtues are embedded throughout this program. We aim to instill as many values as we could towards molding strong personality individuals and a healthier generation,” added Lavinia.