Schools compete in Maine DOE cook-off com­pe­tition: "It's important to have meals like this" – Spectrum News

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BANGOR — School nutrition teams from districts across the state took part in a Maine Department of Education cook-off this week.
The annual Farm-to-School Cook-Off competition is meant to promote the use of local, healthy foods in school meals.
“We are grateful to child nutrition professionals in Maine who do essential work in providing healthy, delicious meals to students at no cost multiple times per day,” said Maine DOE Commissioner Pender Makin.
According to Maine DOE, teams representing MSAD 1, MSAD 52, RSU 22, and the Westbrook School Department were selected to compete in the championship following four rounds of regional competitions in late March.
The teams then went through a final round competition at Bangor High School on Wednesday.
“As a student, I think it’s important to have meals like this,” said Nolan Coon, a student at B.H.S. and a judge in the competition. “Because even for a student not interested in school, I think having good nutrition and food value makes people excited.”
Competitors used locally sourced ingredients to prepare two meals, which a panel of judges then scored.
“The teams have to prepare a breakfast and a lunch meal using at least three local ingredients and one USDA food that they receive from their entitlement money,” said Stephanie Stambach, child nutrition supervisor for the Maine DOE Child Nutrition Office and an organizer of the event.
The competition is now in its 11th year. This year, the “challenge” ingredients that teams were encouraged to incorporate were local ground beef and wild blueberries.
“It’s good food. It doesn’t have a whole lot of preservatives; it’s organic. It’s locally sourced from Maine from our farms,” said Riley Davis, a student and competitor from Westbrook High School.
According to the Maine DOE, Maine school nutrition programs have been reimbursed for nearly $385,000 in local food purchases using the state’s local foods funds, which means roughly $770,000 goes to local farmers and producers in Maine.
“Maine really is ahead of the game when it comes to farm and sea to school in Maine,” said Stambach. “And supporting our local farmers and fishermen is really important to the culture of Maine and the history of Maine.”
RSU 22, which represents Hampden, Newburgh, Winterport, and Frankfort, took home the crown this year.
“We absolutely love producing healthy options for our kids,” said Hannah Liberty, who competed on the winning Team Nourish Kids of RSU 22. “Anything that we can do to help feed our kids a little bit better and with a little bit better ingredients, we want to do.”
Organizers said all recipes used during this year’s cook-off will be compiled into a cookbook for other school nutrition teams.

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