Jose Berber, Itzel Bucio, Jasalyn Garcia, Naomi Perez, Jerimah Tate and Yesenia Velazquez from Prosser High School won this year’s Healthy Schools Campaign’s Cooking up Change competition with their Arroz con Pollo Tazon, Roasted Corn and Carrot Relish and Pear Crisp menu. They will not only have their meals served next semester at Chicago Public Schools, but they will also receive an all-expense paid trip to Washington, D.C. to compete in the national competition in June 2018. Cooking up Change is an annual cooking competition challenges high school culinary students from Chicago Public Schools to create healthy, great-tasting meals that meet the real-life requirements of the school meal program and the budget of about $1 per meal. Cooking up Change serves up life-changing opportunities, helps students realize their own potential and puts student voices front and center in the national dialogue about school food.

Healthy Schools Campaign launched Cooking up Change in Chicago in 2007, and it has since grown to include cities across the country. Every year, amazing Chicago student chefs present their meals to local leaders, policymakers and the culinary community at an event that also serves as Healthy Schools Campaign’s annual benefit. With delicious and nutritious recipes, high school culinary students will battle it out in the kitchen to see who will take home top honors, trophies and culinary scholarships, and of course make their schools proud. “These students show us the possibilities of redefining school food,” says Rochelle Davis, Healthy Schools Campaign’s President and CEO. “Each and every year, these students amaze us with with their creativity, ingenuity and their delicious food!” The top team will travel to Washington, D.C., next spring to compete against teams from cities across the country and engage with policymakers. “The trip to D.C. is an opportunity for the students to bring their meals to a bigger stage and share with policymakers their experience of creating healthy and delicious school meals,” says Davis.