Nine-year-old Eliza Grierson has been crowned the overall winner of the Sodexo Prestige Venues & Events competition to create the perfect illustration for the new lunchbox to feature in the Terrace Café at the Botanics.
Pupils from the Flora Stevenson Primary School in the city’s Comely Bank attended the event and runner-up prizes were awarded to Iris Weston and Scarlett Leonard also aged 9.
The three budding artists were invited to a sumptuous afternoon tea with their parents at the Botanics to see the first batch of Eliza’s lunchboxes up close.
Before starting their drawings, pupils were given the chance to tour the Garden and get a feel for the space, plants & the different reasons people visit all year round. This helped form the inspiration for their final designs.
Entries were judged by Paul Mitchell, Regional Manager at Sodexo alongside Head Teacher at Flora’s Primary School and a winner was selected with a further two runner up designs receiving recognition for their efforts.
Paul Mitchell, Regional Manager for Sodexo Prestige Venues & Events said: “Following our refurbishment of the Terrace Café we wanted to make sure we had the perfect finishing touches in place for visitors to enjoy. The Terrace Café is much loved by local families and tourists and we wanted to bring the garden to life through the eyes of a child. It offers such a fantastic learning experience for young and old and the lunchbox design ensures this continues through to their visit to the café too.
“We have very much enjoyed working with Flora Stevenson as part of this project and hope to be able to collaborate with the school and children on other initiatives in the future.”
Sharon McGhee, Head Teacher at The Flora Stevenson Primary School said: “This really has been a fun project for the children to get involved in, they have shown huge amounts of enthusiasm and this certainly shone through with their designs. It’s also lovely to know that whenever any of the pupils drop into the Botanics and stop off at the Terrace Café, they could be having lunch from one of Eliza’s lunchboxes!”
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
