Could you become Girlguiding’s leftover legend?

In 2023 more than 2,700 girls shared their thoughts on climate change with us, this included both members and non-members.

Climate change can be a source of worry and anxiety for girls, who told us that they feel sad (43%), scared (32%) and frustrated (29%) when it comes to climate change.

Girls are committed to taking action and want to be a part of the solution – they shared that they want to have a say in how climate change is tackled and be given the tools and opportunities to make a difference. More than 86% of young members who were surveyed had taken action for the climate in the past 12 months.

One of the many ways in which we can take action is to reduce food waste. In the UK, it is estimated that households account for 70% of the UK’s 9.5m tonnes of food waste produced every year. When food goes to waste, we’re also wasting the energy and resource it takes to produce it and leaving it to rot, it releases 8% of global greenhouse gases – which is the same as the tourism industry globally.

That’s why we’ve teamed up with our friends at Knorr®, to get our young members cooking from scratch and tackle food waste this summer! We’re encouraging girls to have a go at something new, try new flavours, and make the most out of what’s in their fridges and cupboards to come up with a recipe that will earn them the title of Girlguiding’s leftover legends. This is an ideal activity for girls to take part in at home during the summer with their parents or carers.

How do you become Girlguiding’s next leftover legend?

We are looking to crown one leftover legend per section, which can be an individual submission or as a whole unit. To become our leftover legends all you have to do is:

1. Create and cook a recipe using mainly ingredients that are already open or half used from your fridge or cupboard, following the entry requirements below.
2. Submit your recipe via email to [email protected] before Monday 2 September 2024. Don’t forget to check out the terms and conditions.
3. Keep your eyes peeled for Wednesday 25 September 2024 when we’ll name our leftover legends.

Entry requirements

For the purpose of this competition, we are defining leftovers as the food remaining after the rest has been used, so this could be half a bag of flour, or half an onion you have left in the fridge from a previous recipe, or a bit of frozen Bolognese from the freezer.

• Our leftover legends competition is open to Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Rangers. Young members can enter as indviduals (this is a great activity for girls to take part in at home during the summer with their parents or carers) or work together as a unit to create and submit their recipe.
• To enter, first of all, please let a parent, guardian or leader know you’d like to take part in the competition, and if you’re under 14 please either copy them in the email or ask them to submit your entry for you. 
• Remember to stay safe in the kitchen and ask for help with things like chopping and hot ovens and dishes.
• To be taken into consideration, all recipes must come with a picture, a list of ingredients used and a step-by-step explanation of how you’ve made your dish. Please make sure that the photos you submit are only showing the food you've cooked! For GDPR reasons please do not include identifiable imagery such as faces.
• Every dish should contain at least 2 fruits or vegetables.
• Every dish must contain at least 3 items from your fridge or cupboard that have already been opened, even better if they’re close to their use by date.
• You can add up to 3 ingredients from your fridge or pantry that haven’t been opened yet to your recipe with, make sure to ask your parent or carer for permission before doing so.
• Extra points will be awarded for: how creative the name of your dish is, presentation on photo and amounts of leftovers used.
• You can also get extra points for turning a leftover dish into another dish, for example Bolognese meat turned into cottage pie, using up food that’s near its use by date and turning food scraps into ingredients, for example turning potato peels into a crispy topping for your cottage pie.
• You can also get an extra point if your recipe contains a review from a friend or a relative.

What’s in it for you?

You will be helping the planet by making use of ingredients you may have otherwise thrown away, tested your cooking skills and tried new flavours.

As well as the fame and glory of becoming Girlguiding’s leftover legends, the winning recipes (one from each section) will be turned into recipe cards and posted to the winners, as well as being hosted on the Girlguiding website in a blog.