Healthy Children’s Festival Cook Off

The 2012 Healthy Children’s Festival was another great year! Read Maggie’s account of the day:

5 lucky Yandeyarra students were picked to be part of the cooking team at the Hedland Healthy Schools Festival cook off on Tuesday 31st of July. The students were Maggie Captain, Shonoah Coppin, Jahmarley Gordon, Jamie-lee Flatfoot, Silvanna Walker and we all went with Miss Jessica.

We went to Hedland Senior High School for the big cook off. At the cook off we made Chilli Con Kanga Cups. It is called ‘Chilli Con Kanga Cups’ because it’s got kangaroo meat in it and it comes in a little tortilla cup.

When we got to Hedland Senior High School we were a bit late because we live two hours drive out of Hedland and we can’t leave before the sun gets up. We quickly went inside to get everything ready for cooking, then into the home economics room where all the school students were sitting down.

We listened to a girl called Greta Yaxley (she is only 12) and she was the winner of Junior Master Chef. She cooked Teriyaki Chicken with Rice Stick Noodles for lunch for all the school students who were in the cooking competition. It was nice and sweet and I enjoyed eating her food. After that we all had to go back to our cooking area and get cooking!

We cooked about 180 cups then Maggie, Jamie-lee and Silvanna set up our serving area with balloons, the Yandeyarra flag, posters and some ribbons. After 3 hours of cooking we had to serve our customers – all the people from Hedland. People could walk around to every tent tasting the different food that the students made over the 3 hours of cooking. Then they could vote for their favourite dish that the schools made.

At the end of the day the judges tasted a dish from the schools and then they voted for their favourite food. Out of all schools there were 3 winners; Cassia Primary School, Yandeyarra Remote Community School and St Cecilia’s Primary School. It was a very close competition because the Cassia beat Yandeyarra School by half a point!

It was a very tough day because we were cooking, serving, getting everything set up, driving 300kms, cleaning up and packing the car but it was also a fun day as we got to meet Greta and Julie Berry.

A big thank you to Sarah Amiradaki for organising the Healthy Children’s Festival, to Hedland Senior High School for having us at your school and Shana Gelin for coming to meet us!

By Maggie C