Student chefs speak at a Capitol Hill briefing on school food reform in May 2011

HSC launched Cooking up Change in Chicago in 2007 to engage student chefs and the broader community in a dialogue about school food reform and the need for more resources for our nation’s school meal program. Now, HSC is building on the success of this flagship Chicago event by working with local sponsors in cities across the U.S. to host Cooking up Change healthy cooking contests. The finalists from these competitions, including the winners of the Chicago contest, are invited to compete in the national finals in Washington, DC.

In addition to spotlighting remarkable student talent, Cooking up Change brings attention to the challenges of serving fresh, healthy school meals and the need for reform in our school food system.

This focus is especially important and timely as provisions of the recent reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act roll out and and leaders across the US respond to first lady Michelle Obama’s call to action to end childhood obesity in a generation, particularly her focus on school food.

The unique strength of Cooking up Change comes from its power to elevate a meal and a message created by students so that it reaches their peers nationwide and the elected leaders whose decisions about school food policy affect students’ health so directly.

For the past three years, student teams have taken part in a Capitol Hill briefing on the future of school food.

Student-designed meals from the contest have been served in schools across the country as well as in the U.S. House of Representatives cafeteria. Perhaps most tellingly, lunches from Cooking up Change have been integrated into the school food menus in Chicago Public Schools and are now served regularly throughout the district, a testament to the students’ skill in creating recipes that meet real-life constraints for ingredients and preparation--and their ability to design healthy lunches that are popular with their peers.

As student chef Cari Smith said when she spoke at a Capitol Hill briefing on school food reform hosted by Healthy Schools Campaign, “I learned that change really can happen if we all help it along. I can help change what we eat in schools.”