Arkansas 4-H Food Challenge teams compete to create healthy, tasty meals on a budget
By Rebekah Hall
U of A System Division of Agriculture
Aug. 9, 2023
Fast Facts:
- Grant County team advances to 4-H National Food Challenge in October
- 32 junior and senior 4-H teams from 17 Arkansas counties competed
- 4-H Food Challenge teaches nutrition, cooking, food safety skills
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NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — In many rural Arkansas communities, access to fresh, nutritious food is limited and creating healthy meals on a budget presents a challenge. Arkansas 4-H youth from around the state rose to the occasion recently, putting their cooking skills to the test at the Arkansas 4-H Food Challenge on Aug. 4.
Thirty-two junior and senior teams from 17 counties competed in the challenge, held at the Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management Institute, or CAHMI, at UA Pulaski Technical College in North Little Rock. Teams had 40 minutes to prep, cook and clean up their station and used ingredients available at dollar stores, including canned tomatoes, frozen broccoli, pasta and heavy cream.
Each team had five minutes to present their dish to judges and explain the food safety measures taken in preparing it, the nutritional value and the total cost of the ingredients. The judging panel included Cooperative Extension Service family and consumer science agents as well as Renee Smith, former associate dean of CAHMI; Chef Randy Adamson, a graduate of CAHMI; and Ashlyn Ussery, an agriculture and natural resources educator for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
Amanda Welch, 4-H youth development specialist for the Division of Agriculture and coordinator of the 4-H Food Challenge, said the program was designed to teach youth culinary skills and help them develop healthy habits for life.
“The Arkansas 4-H Food Challenge was created for 4-H’ers to apply their nutritional and culinary knowledge at a fun, friendly state competition that mirrors the National 4-H Food Challenge,” Welch said. “It is a lot easier for a person with poor eating habits to improve when they’re given resources that are convenient and accessible to them. It's vital that we educators help our youth be proactive in making and creating healthy lifestyle choices with foods that are accessible to them.”
Welch said that the Arkansas 4-H Food Challenge has nearly tripled in size since it began in 2021.
“Thanks to the Healthy Habits grant from the Wal-Mart Foundation, Arkansas 4-H has had the funds and resources to grow this program from 11 teams to 32 teams over the past three years,” Welch said. “It takes a lot of time, funding and resources for county agents to prep, plan and implement nutritional education programs in their communities and clubs.”
Welch said all food not used during the competition was donated to The Shack, a non-profit ministry in Little Rock that provides free hygiene facilities, laundry services and meals for people in need.
The winners were:
Senior Division
- First place: Howard County Seniors with Spatulas — Sarah Lamb, Anna Kate McKinnon, Christian Trombley
- Second place: Grant County Slice, Slice, Babies — Klaesy Knoefler, Daley Rogers, Dylan Rogers
- Third place: Grant County Amazin’ Glazinz — Aubrey Ottens, Kortni Nelson, Acacia Searcy
Junior Division
- First place: Craighead County Sautéed and Flambéed — Gus Faulkner, Danny Lesslie, Gabrielle Leslie
- Second place: Howard County Food Choppers — Ayden Howard, Abi Webb, Parker Webb
- Third place-tie: Greene County Amazing Glaze — Karie Head, Addie Lashley, Millie McKinney and Reesie Tritch, tied with Yell County’s Clover Choppers — Tristan Garrison, Maeleigh Miller, Brooklyn Moulder, Kaitlyn Munroe
Due to a recent rule change, the same Arkansas 4-H senior team cannot compete twice at the 4-H National Food Challenge. Because the Howard County Seniors with Spatulas also competed at the National Food Challenge last year, the Arkansas 4-H Food Challenge’s second-place senior team, Grant County’s Slice, Slice, Babies, will instead advance to the national competition on Oct. 3 at the Texas State Fair.
For their winning dish, the Howard County Seniors with Spatulas used the mystery ingredient of bowtie pasta to create a “Southwest Soup” with canned chicken, heavy whipping cream, corn, broccoli, tomatoes and Parmesan cheese.
“Right now in our county, it’s show season, and I show goats,” Christian Trombley, 16, told the judges. “This would be a really good meal for me to eat after exercising them because it has lots of protein, which helps regulate your muscles.”
Sarah Lamb, 17, said her favorite part of competing in the 4-H Food Challenge is meeting new people and getting creative with food. Lamb said she hopes to own her own bakery one day.
“I like working together, especially with these three, because we all get along very well,” said Anna Kate McKinnon, 14. “We like to laugh a lot.”
4-H is a youth development program operated by the Cooperative Extension Service, part of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. The program teaches participants life skills through the “learn by doing” model. Program participants gain knowledge through non-formal, science-based, experiential education activities.
To learn more about Arkansas 4-H and its programs, visit the Arkansas 4-H website.
To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on Twitter at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on Twitter at @AgInArk.
About the Division of Agriculture
The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s mission is to strengthen agriculture, communities, and families by connecting trusted research to the adoption of best practices. Through the Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative Extension Service, the Division of Agriculture conducts research and extension work within the nation’s historic land grant education system.
The Division of Agriculture is one of 20 entities within the University of Arkansas System. It has offices in all 75 counties in Arkansas and faculty on five system campuses.
The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture offers all its Extension and Research programs to all eligible persons without regard to race, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, age, disability, marital or veteran status, genetic information, or any other legally protected status, and is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.
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Media Contact:
Rebekah Hall
rkhall@uada.edu
@RKHall_
501-671-2061