20181021 Event Press Release - Five-star quality on a budget: New Taipei City Xiufeng Elementary School takes the 2018 All-Taiwan Best School Lunch crown

[20181021 Event Press Release]

Five-star quality on a budget: New Taipei City Xiufeng Elementary School takes the 2018 All-Taiwan Best School Lunch crown

After two days of fierce competition, the first Taiwan School Lunch Competition was won by dietitian Yang Jui-ping and chef Chu Feng-mei from Xiufeng Elementary School in New Taipei City, whose multigrain rice, lotus-leaf steamed pork with rice flour, golden sand fresh bamboo shoots, sweet potato leaves in oyster sauce, tea-scented yam chicken soup and pomelo took the 2018 Best School Lunch crown. At the same time, they also received recognition with the Excellence in Food Education Teaching Award, making them the biggest winners of this year's event.

Dietitian Yang Jui-ping said that in nearly twenty years as a school dietitian, she has always been diligent and devoted, doing her utmost to provide students with the best possible meals. Being recognized by the judges this time is a tremendous encouragement to her, proving that with dedication, it is possible to provide five-star delicious, nutritionally balanced meals even within a limited food budget.

Two representatives of the judging panel, Associate Professor Liu Chin-yu, director of the Taiwan Nutrition Society, and section chief Chiu Chiu-chan of the K-12 Education Administration of the Ministry of Education, each shared their views on this competition. Associate Professor Liu Chin-yu believes that dietitians and chefs have always been the unsung heroes behind school lunches, and that affirming their professional abilities and hard work through a competition carries considerable significance as a benchmark; "School lunches have always been an important responsibility of the Ministry of Education, and the work is extremely demanding, not as simple as outsiders imagine." Section chief Chiu Chiu-chan said that seeing so many outstanding dietitians and chefs over the past day or two, holding fast to their posts and cooking such rich and varied meals for the children, moved her deeply.

Since children are the main recipients of school lunches, this competition specially selected two upper-grade elementary school judges through an essay contest to choose the school lunch they considered the best. The first-ever children's judge awards went to Qingshui Elementary School in Taichung City and Yuanyi Food in Taoyuan City respectively; in addition, Mr. Renjo Baba, founder of Japan's National School Lunch Koshien, presented the international judge awards to Taichung City Yuying Junior High School and Tainan City Xinnan Elementary School. He said that after this competition, he was not only deeply impressed by Taiwan's school lunches, but was also inspired to come up with new ideas, and that he would certainly maintain close exchanges with Taiwan in the future.

"I am very happy that the competition has received so much attention and recognition. This year is only the beginning; the National School Lunch Competition will definitely continue to be held, and I hope that through actions like this, we can accumulate, bit by bit, the power to change Taiwan's school lunches," said Huang Chia-lin, secretary-general of the preparatory office of the Food Education Association.

She further stated that in addition to the recently published parent-child cookbook "Mom, What Are We Eating Today?" by Matsumaru Sho, the winning dietitian of Japan's National School Lunch Koshien, and today's conclusion of the Taiwan School Lunch Competition, the most important final highlight event this month is the first-ever photo exhibition themed on school lunches, which looks back through images and historical materials at the food memories that have been closely tied to us over the sixty years since Taiwan began offering school lunches. In the future, the Food Education Association will continue to deepen its work on the issue of school lunches and launch actions concerning food safety, food agriculture and environmental education.

[Complete List of Winners]

http://schoollunch.tw/content/info/DiscussionDetail.aspx?Id=208

[Press Contacts]
Tseng Ni (Project Manager, Food Education Association) 02-66365870 / [email protected]

Huang Chia-lin (Secretary-General, Preparatory Office of the Food Education Association) 0978-207831 / [email protected]