News Item

Final straw is a winner for YKids!

A hungry caterpillar made out of straw won creative volunteers from YKids first prize in a unique competition.

The Bootle-based children’s charity beat competition from nine other teams in the Bale Beautification contest, which challenged them to transform straw bales into a structure of their choice and then cover it with compost and salad, vegetable and herb plants.

The teams came up with a range of eye-catching designs including a car, ‘Bootle-henge’, a windmill, a bedroom, a Peppa Pig Garden and even Thomas the Tank Engine.

But first prize went to Ykids who impressed the judges by creating their own very hungry caterpillar.

Bale Beautification was the brainchild of Christine Leung of social enterprise Lotus Brook Ltd, and fuinded by grant scheme run by local agency Regenerus.

Supported by New Directions, it was held at Safe Productions’ base on Waverly Street.

As the plants grow over the coming weeks the structures will provide food for local families and help to encourage children to practice their cooking skills.

Later on, they will rot down into compost which will be shared with other green projects in the south of the borough.

In the meantime, Christine Leung is working Regenerus on developing other new growing projects on the area to encourage more local residents to produce their own fruit and vegetables,

She said: “The bales competition is a great way to show how easy it can be to grow fresh food and how much fun as well! It demonstrated that you don’t need big plots of land – just creative ideas and commitment.”

Regenerus Chief Executive, Cate Murphy added: “As in the inagurual event last year, we were really impressed by the imagination that went into the designs and how enthusiastic everyone was about getting involved in the planting.  It was a great success.”

The other teams that took part in the event were from New Directions, Safe Green Dream, Fun4Kidz, Gateway Collective, First Steps Nursery, Centre 56, South Sefton Foodbank, the Feelgood Factory and Litherland Community Centre.