Bakery supplier Dawn Foods UK & Ireland has appointed three new student ambassadors for 2025 – Jordan Young, Soraya Akbari, and Sarah Fallow.
They were chosen for their commitment to the craft of baking, understanding of current trends and challenges in the industry, along with their exciting ideas for new products and recipes, the firm said.
For the past eight years, Dawn Foods has chosen its student ambassadors from those studying at University College Birmingham (UCB). This year, the supplier branched out by offering places to people from other bakery colleges as well as members of the Alliance for Bakery Students & Trainees (ABST) of which Dawn Foods’ marketing lead for West EU & AMEAP, Jacqui Passmore, is president.
Young, aged 26, started his bakery journey straight from school as an apprentice with Patton’s Bakery in Newtownards, Northern Ireland. With a passion for bakery production, he also studied at The School of Artisan Food, in association with Nottingham Trent University, where he was awarded Top FdSc Student in the school in 2024. In a move to help develop his technical knowledge and skills, he then continued at Nottingham Trent University to undertake a BSc Food Science degree.
Originally from Iran, Akbari, aged 32, completed an MSc in Food Science at London Metropolitan University and has chosen to specialise in the baking industry at Zero2Five, the Cardiff Metropolitan University’s food and industry collaboration facility. She says her passion for bakery started during her childhood when she made traditional products with her family. She aspires to work in product development and marketing.
A final year student at UCB, 21-year-old Sarah Farrow’s passion for baking also started young when she baked with both her mum and nan. During Covid she set up a small business making cakes and bakes to be delivered to neighbours on her estate. Her enterprising spirit saw her ending up with back-to-back orders and it was this experience that led her to thinking about bakery as a career. Her degree course has given her an insight into product development, which she is keen to explore more with Dawn Foods.
The student ambassadors get the chance to work with Dawn’s development team on new recipes. They also create content for the company’s social media platforms as well as blogs for the website and editorial for external media including British Baker, providing excellent opportunities for students to promote themselves to the wider bakery sector.
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