Winners Receive a Free Trip to Washington, DC Winning Meal to Be Served at Deer Valley Unified Schools

Barry Goldwater High School’s Michael Griffin and Jason Forrari won Cooking up Change competition held last month with their MJ’s Curry with Zesty Curried Corn and Potatoes and Darn Good Bananas menu.

Cooking up Change® is a national healthy cooking competition launched by Healthy Schools Campaign. It challenges teams of high school culinary students to create menu items that are not only healthy, but also meet nutrition guidelines and the budgetary constraints (about $1 per meal) that School Food Services programs across the country face today. It’s a program that allows students to be involved in the conversation as campuses across the country strive to serve healthful, great-tasting school food that their classmates would enjoy eating at school.

The winning Deer Valley Unified student meal will be served at district schools and the winning students win an all-expense paid trip to Washington, D.C. in June to compete at the national competition at the U.S. Department of Education. There’s also a chance the student meal will be served to U.S. Representatives in D.C.

Teams of two or three culinary students from the District’s Culinary Arts programs followed a rigorous recipe development process with a limited list of ingredients to create dishes that are low in calories, fat, sugar and sodium. The District’s Food Services dietitians carefully checked each recipe to meet nutritional requirements.