Four students from George Washington High School are bound for Washington, D.C., this spring after winning the citywide Cooking Up Change healthy cooking contest.
The contest challenged students from 16 Chicago schools to cook healthy, creative meals that follow school district nutrition guidelines—each meal could only cost $1 to make, for example. The winning team will have their meal served for lunch at all Chicago Public Schools campuses one day next year.
And in June, they will embark for Washington, D.C., to compete nationally against champions from nine other cities. The Chicago contest kicked off the national competition.
The winning students from Washington High are Neidy Mejia, 17; Natalie Ruiz, 17; Marshawn Gibson, 17; and Jalize Harmonponcedeleon, 18. They prepared a dish featuring a Cajun chicken lettuce wrap, roasted corn relish and a peach and yogurt pizza dessert.
“Our inspiration was actually to make a burrito bowl,” Ruiz said. But they later decided to substitute the bowl for the lighter, healthier lettuce wrap that would keep their dish below the calorie limit.
After preparing the dish every day for three weeks, the Washington High students managed to win the competition. Students from the high school had last won in 2012.
“Teachers can use my team as a reference for how hard we worked,” Gibson said. “It’s something for the school to be proud about.”