Gabrielle Sang (left), marketing manager for Grace Foods and Services Company, speaks with members of the Guyanese team that won the Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute quiz competition, while Erwin Burton (background), chief operating officer of Gracekennedy Foods, looks on. Members of the team (from left); Cindy Craig, Jamal Duncan, Marilyn Davis (coach of the team), Lisa Mangru and Vanessa Leitch. The team beat St. Lucia to become the regional champions for the first time yesterday. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer

A team of Guyanese students yesterday defeated a St Lucian team by a whopping 80 points to claim the crown of regional champions in the Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute (CFNI) quiz competition.

Hosted by the University of the West Indies, Guyana scored 260 against St. Lucia's 160, winning the competition for the first time since they first entered in 2003.

Marilyn Davis, coach of the Guyanese team which was represented by four schools from that country, said she was quite pleased with the victory.

"It is a very good competition because it is helping to eliminate the stigma attached to home economics across the Caribbean. A lot of people see home economics as just cooking, or for the slower students, but from this competition they can see that it is a lot of science and this can help to change that perception that people have," Ms. Davis told The Gleaner.

Her sentiments were shared by coach of the defeated St. Lucian team, Julie Augustin-Charlery.

Benefits of Food and Nutrition

According to Mrs. Augustin-Charlery, students are now realising the benefits of doing Food and Nutrition through the competition.

"There are a lot of students who are looking forward to doing the subject just because they see how far they can get with it," she said at the luncheon held for the competitors at the Harbour Street, downtown Kingston offices of GraceKennedy, the sponsor of the competition.

CFNI is a Pan American Health Organisation and is located at the UWI campus in Jamaica.