Story in Brief
Hundreds of Georgia youth participate annually in 4-H Food and Nutrition projects. In these projects they learn how to budget and prepare nutritious and safe meals and snacks. They also adopt behaviors that can help reduce their risk for chronic disease. Along with the Georgia 4-H Chicken Barbecue Contest and the Georgia 4-H Egg Preparation Demonstration Contest, 4-H added two additional state level contests that advance to National – the 4-H Food Challenge and the 4-H Turkey Barbecue Contest. The 4-H Food Challenge is a “highly charged” foods experience. This contest, modeled after such competitions as the Food Network's “Iron Chef,” challenges teams of 4-H members to create a dish using a pre¬determined number of ingredients. From these ingredients, team members must identify and prepare the dish, then make a presentation about it to the judges. The presentation includes information about the serving size, nutritional value, and cost of the dish. The 4-H Food Challenge allows 4-H members to demonstrate their culinary and food safety skills to judges and observers.