Cooking up Change Healthy Cooking Contest: Returning Champs, Exciting New Recipes!

October 27, 2009 | Written By: Healthy Schools Campaign

The big news this week at HSC is Cooking up Change!

What began as our annual benefit has grown to include an exciting healthy cooking contest in which high school students studying culinary arts in Chicago Public Schools create healthy, tasty school meals on a tight budget with the hopes of sharing their meal with peers nationwide. The winning school meal — as determined by a panel of judges — will be served in all Chicago high schools and in cafeterias across the country.

Last year's winning meal was served to more than 40,000 students in cities from New York to Denver and in the House of Representatives cafeteria. That same day, the winning team from Richards Career Academy traveled to DC to prepare their meal with Sam Kass, chef to the Obama family. The Richards team will be back at Cooking up Change this year — with all returning team members! — to defend their title. We can't wait to see what delicious meals the team of young chefs from Richards and the contending teams from across the city create!

Check out video of the Richards team bringing the Cooking up Change spirit to DC:

Will the Richards team defend their title this year? Or will another team of talented young chefs take the first prize? Stay posted for details about all of the winning school meals and impressive teams of culinary students.

And if you're planning to attend Cooking up Change on Thursday, be prepared to cast a vote of your own! In addition to developing healthy school meals, all of the student teams will create healthy cookies to share with guests at the benefit, who will then cast votes for an audience choice award.

To learn more, visit www.cookingupchange.org.