Teens Win Scholarships with Healthy Chili Dishes in Nationwide C-CAP Meatless Monday Recipe Contest
Winners of the 2013 C-CAP Meatless Monday Chili Recipe Contest were announced in March by Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP), the national leader providing scholarships, education and career opportunities in the culinary arts to underserved youth, and Meatless Monday, an initiative of the nonprofit The Monday Campaigns, which provides healthy and environmentally friendly information and recipes.
Thousands of C-CAP high-school seniors became “head chefs” in their classrooms and were introduced to the Meatless Monday public-health campaign encouraging everyone to start each week with a healthy meal. While working with their culinary-arts teachers to concoct the original meatless chili entrée, the teens were encouraged to use the recipe contest to explore new fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes.
“We’re thrilled to team up with C-CAP for our second-annual recipe contest,” said Sid Lerner, founder of the Meatless Monday movement. “Our goal is to motivate aspiring chefs to create tasty and healthy meatless meals. We can’t wait for America to taste the winning C-CAP students’ imaginative meatless renditions of the traditional chili.”
Each C-CAP school was invited to submit only one student recipe and photo. Seven finalists were selected and presented to a distinguished panel of judges. Three scholarships will be awarded this spring at the C-CAP Cooking Competitions for Scholarships Awards in the hometown of the winning students.
1st prize: $5,000 scholarship
Los Angeles—Lucila Flores, Marshall High School for Kung Pao Chili
2nd prize: $3,000 scholarship
New York—Victoria Kitsos, Long Island City High School for Smoked Spicy Seitan Chili
3rd prize: $2,000 scholarship
Hampton Roads, Va.—Briana Small, Virginia Beach Tech Center for Roasted Sweet Potato Quinoa Chili
The first prize winner and her teacher were awarded a Canyon Ranch all-inclusive stay, where the student will be able to experience healthy-cooking practices first hand from corporate chef Scott Uehlein. Additionally, she will have the opportunity to spend time with a nutritionist to gain further insights into healthy eating. For the teachers, they'll have time to pamper themselves and also spend time in the kitchen with Canyon Ranch’s culinary team.
“Through this contest, student chefs were guided by their teachers on recipe writing and development and were able to showcase their talent creating exciting meatless recipes,” says C-CAP president Susan Robbins. “We greatly appreciate The Monday Campaigns providing high-school seniors with the opportunity for scholarships while promoting healthy eating in high schools and communities throughout the nation.”
The recipe submissions were judged on originality, flavor, healthfulness, ease of preparation and writing ability. To see the winning recipes and photos of winners, and for more information about Meatless Monday, visit www.meatlessmonday.com/c-cap-chili-contest-press-resources. For more information on C-CAP, visit www.ccapinc.org.