Leeds schools in street food challenge

Leeds West Academy triumphed over Leeds City Academy and the John Smeaton Academy in the contest at Trinity Leeds.

The Trinity Kitchen Challenge teams got involved as part of the schools’ curriculum in a bid to cultivate business skills.

The shopping centre collaborated with social enterprise the Ahead Partnership to encourage students from across Leeds to develop their entrepreneurial talents.

The schools had to design their own street food business model for the shopping centre’s street-food venue, Trinity Kitchen, and pitch the idea to a panel of retail guru ‘Dragons’.

With an allocated budget of £20,000, each group then set out to create their very own street food business. Teachers from the schools selected teams to present to the ‘Dragons’ from the shopping centre.

As well as being crowned overall champions, winners Leeds West Academy also got a £50 voucher each to spend within the centre.

Dan Wharton, marketing manager at Trinity Leeds, said: “We’ve really enjoyed seeing the extremely innovative concepts that the students have come up with. It has been a great opportunity to engage with local students and provide them with a wide range of business skills which will make them a lot more employable in their future endeavours.”

Megan Taylor, of Ahead Partnership, said: “We’ve worked with Trinity Leeds over the course of the past few years and are delighted to offer our partner schools such an innovative project that not only engages students in retail management and hospitality, but also demonstrates entrepreneurism.”