Volunteers from three local food pantries faced off in a Chopped-style competition at the Community Pantry Cook-Off hosted by the Makana Foundation and Wordhouse Community Foundation, with Faith Community Center providing the venue, on Sept. 26.
The event challenged participants to create a cohesive main course and dessert from a “mystery box” of ingredients, modeled after those distributed to local families each week. In addition to friendly competition and a fun atmosphere for guests, the competition gave local pantries an opportunity to get to know each other and swap ideas while raising awareness about local food insecurity.
Three two-person teams donned aprons and stepped into the Faith Community Center kitchen on Saturday afternoon. They opened boxes containing chicken, rotini pasta, bread, canned vegetables (including pumpkin), Goldfish crackers, rice and cherry tomatoes. Additionally, pantry staples were made available to teams.
Kristen Harsch and LaNae Harsch from Edgemont Neighborhood Community Cupboard served Italian chicken sautéed with tomatoes and mushrooms alongside spicy Brussels sprouts, with a dessert of pumpkin muffins.
From The Makana Foundation, Natalie Johnson and Marissa Sirghie plated up Goldfish cracker-crusted chicken Parmesan with a loaded vegetable sauce and a side of hot honey roasted Brussels sprouts, finishing with pumpkin white chocolate chip cookies.
Representing BE Church Community Pantry, cooks Zena Altabi and Paige Wordhouse prepared roast chicken over pasta in tomato sauce with roasted Brussels sprouts, tomatoes and onion, with warm pumpkin puree and whipped cream for dessert.
Judges Steve Jones, Melanie and Shane Convery, and Kathleen Springer deliberated for nearly 20 minutes before awarding first place to Altabi and Wordhouse from the BE Church Community Pantry with a score of 8.9 out of 10. They edged out The Makana Foundation, who took home the crowd-sourced People’s Choice award, by less than a point.
Organizer Michelle Wordhouse was very happy with how the event turned out and looks forward to an even “bigger and better” cook-off next year, emphasizing how collaborative events help to remind volunteers and the community that addressing hunger is not something any one organization needs to do alone.
Both the BE Church Community Pantry and The Makana Foundation are currently looking for volunteers to help with their ongoing pantry operations.
Community members who would like to help can also make donations of cash, food, or personal care items. Donations can be dropped off at any of the participating pantries.
More information can be found at the following sites.
BE Church Community Pantry: bechurchfood.com
The Makana Foundation: themakanafoundation.org
Edgemont Neighborhood Community Cupboard: mapping.littlefreepantry.org/pantry/5225
Woodhouse Foundation: wordhousefoundation.org
Faith Community Center: fccenter48111.org