Best porridge title scooped by US
BBC News – 11 Oct 2009
The competition coincided with the first World Porridge Day, organised by Argyll-based charity Mary’s Meals, held in aid of hungry children in developing …
First American competes in Golden Spurtle World Porridge (aka oatmeal) Making
Los Angeles Times – Oct 9, 2009
So this Sunday (which also happens to be World Porridge Day, a terrific event that helps feed children in some of the poorest countries around the globe), …
New bid to stir up support for charity
Strathspey Herald – Gavin Musgrove – Oct 7, 2009
Carrbridge Community Council are behind ambitious plans to create an annual World Porridge Day which they hope will become a major fund-raiser for the …
Three men deny conspiracy to sell Ritz hotel for £250m – For more hospitality …
CatererSearch – Oct 5, 2009
… the Scottish Highlands has declared next weekend the first World Porridge Day and is seeking United Nations approval to make it an official celebration. …
Battling it out for the Golden Spurtle
Aberdeen Press and Journal – Oct 7, 2009
Sunday has also been deemed the first international World Porridge Day, a day when people across the globe are encouraged to sit down and tuck into a hearty …
Porridge Day celebrations set to cause a stir
Scotsman – Mark Smith – Oct 3, 2009
To be held on the second Sunday of every October, World Porridge Day will see oatmeal-related events held across the globe. This year, there is a porridge …
John Gibson: It’s all about trickery with the hickory
Edinburgh Evening News – John Gibson – Oct 7, 2009
Sunday will be the first World Porridge Day. Makes no difference to me, I always get my oats on the Sabbath. Which reminds me, we need a new spurtle. …
Scottish ministers called on to support World Porridge Day
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/motionsAndAmendments/motions.htm
*S3M-4967 Jamie McGrigor: World Porridge Day — That the Parliament welcomes World Porridge Day on 11 October 2009, which is the celebration of a traditional Scottish dish that has had a place in homes around Scotland for generations; notes that World Porridge Day was established by a partnership between Mary’s Meals and the World Porridge Making Championship, which takes place at Carrbridge; recognises that to many people porridge is a comfort food that warms up a wet or wintry day but to the 320,000 children in Malawi who receive Mary’s Meals, likuni phala, a maize-based porridge, provides the comfort of knowing that there will be a next meal; congratulates the highland charity, Scottish International Relief, based in Dalmally in Argyll, on the tireless and dedicated work that it carries out and particularly congratulates Mary’s Meals, which feeds over 375,000 children in 15 different countries; notes that events are planned across the world from Loch Awe to Chicago, and would welcome widespread participation by hosting a big porridge breakfast or other porridge-related activities to raise money and awareness about hunger.
World Porridge Making Championships /World Porridge Day
For more information contact Linda Jolly 01479 841211
Mary’s Meals
For more information contact louisa.mclennan@marysmeals.org
Tel: 01838 200605
Media Release 2009
Spurtles are at the ready with an invitation to porridge fans across the globe to join in an international celebration of Scotland’s traditional national dish by taking part in the World’s Biggest Porridge Breakfast. The charity fund raising event, in aid of Mary’s Meals, is set to mark the establishing of an annual World Porridge Day.
The idea is being spearheaded by organisers of the 16th World Porridge Making Championship which takes place each year in the small Scottish Highland village of Carrbridge. Community council chairman, Scott Bruce explained that the aim was to create a special highlight for this year’s porridge making championship.”We hope that whether at home or abroad, porridge fans across the globe will sit down and enjoy a hearty bowl of porridge while at the same time help in raising money for a worthwhile cause,” he said.
The first international World Porridge Day will be celebrated on Sunday October 11 with everyone invited to log on to the new dedicated website a www.worldporridgeday.com
The date has been specially chosen to tie in with the annual World Porridge Making Championship which sees expert porridge makers from far and wide battling it out for the prestigious Golden Spurtle trophy and honour of claiming the World Porridge Making Champion title.
The annual competition, sponsored by oatmeal producers, Hamlyns of Scotland, is one of the best known events on the Scottish food calendar with contenders coming from across the UK and further afield including Sweden, Canada and the USA. As well as the traditional porridge there is also a Speciality Section for porridge to which other ingredients can be added.
The judges are George McIvor and Colin Bussey of the Master Chefs of Great Britain along with TV presenter and cookery book writer, Nell Nelson who is well known for her TV series, The Woman Who Ate Scotland.
Scotland’s most famous poet Rabbie Burns declared porridge as being the “chief of Scotia’s food” and with this year being the 250th anniversary of the poet’s birth, the championship is to have a special Burns theme. The official Burns for Homecoming, Christopher Tait will be out and about dressed in period costume and performing snippets of the poet’s verse while there will also be the auctioning of a replica of a wooden porridge bowl which belonged to the poet himself. The original bowl, dated 1770 and inscribed with the initials R.B., is included in an extensive collection of Burns manuscripts and other memorabilia housed in the Thomas Cooper Library at the University of South Carolina. The one-off replica, made by woodturner Peter Tyler of Farr near Inverness, is to be sold to the highest bidder with email bids to worldporridge@aol.com being invited in advance of the auction.
The event itself, which starts with a pipe band parade and the official Toast to the Porridge , includes stalls, product tastings, street entertainment and live music as well as the Carrbridge Challenge 5km and 3km Forest Run and minis fun run sponsored by RE/MAX Cairngorm with fund raising in aid of Maggie’s Highlands.
More information can be found on the championship website at www.goldenspurtle.com where there is also a new international recipe section inviting everyone from amateur cooks to professional chefs across the world to submit their own porridge making and other favourite oatmeal recipes. These can be voted on by other internet users with the mostly highly rated recipe being awarded a specially inscribed World Porridge Making Championship spurtle.
EDITORS NOTE
World Porridge Day is a chance to draw attention to the work of a charity that provides school meals for 391,000 children in fifteen of the world’s poorest countries. To the children who receive Likuni Phala (a maize-based porridge) from Mary’s Meals in Malawi, it is an incentive to go school, and the reassurance that they will get something nutritious to eat each day.
News of the international celebration of Scotland’s national dish has reached the corridors of power with Scotland’s ministers called on to demonstrate their support for World Porridge Day and the tremendous work undertaken by Mary’s Meals with a motion tabled in Scottish Parliament.
· In Malawi, Mary’s Meals feeds around 320,000 children, over 10 per cent of the primary school population.
· The Likuni Phala (porridge) that Mary’s Meals provides in Malawi is a porridge designed by nutritionists, consisting of maize flour and ground soy beans, milk powder, vitamins and minerals and a small amount of sugar – key elements of a balanced diet. It costs Mary’s Meals just £6.15 to feed a child in Malawi for a year.
