Bringing the Flavor at Cooking up Change Boston

June 06, 2018 | Written By: Healthy Schools Campaign

This year was just the second time Boston hosted a Cooking up Change contest, and the team from Madison Park Technical Vocational High School has won both times.

This year’s Madison Park team of Autasia, La Ryan and Taya wowed the judges with their healthy and delicious menu of Chicken Quesadilla, Pico de Gallo and Apple DeLites. The team had to play around with the dishes and the ingredients before getting everything perfect. “We used fruits and vegetables to bring out extra flavors,” says Autasia

The team also learned quite a bit about how to make healthy food and why it’s so important for schools to have healthy food. “Healthy food is important to me because kids need this in their everyday eating, and healthy food in schools can help,” says Autasia.

For Taya, it was more about how specifically healthy school food improves the lives of students eating it. “Healthy school food is important to me because it keeps kids alert and energized,” she says.

The team from Boston will join other teams from across the country at the Cooking up Change national finals in Washington, D.C., in June. Healthy Schools Campaign’s Cooking up Change contest challenges high school culinary students to create healthy, great-tasting meals that meet the real-life requirements of the national school meal program. Cooking up Change serves up life-changing opportunities, helps students realize their own potential and puts student voices front and center in the national dialogue about school food.