Just before the holiday, we announced the grand prize winner of our fifth annual "My Favorite Holiday Food" Story Writing Contest. Teachers and principals selected eight school winners from hundreds of fourth grade participants on each campus. Making her selection from the six semi-finalists the contest's final judge was author, Gwendolyn Zepeda, ("I Kick the Ball," her next children's book, will be published by Arte Publico in the spring of 2011.)
Over 1,000 Houston area students wrote about their favorite holiday food and the family traditions surrounding it. Most entries also included recipes and many featured creative multi media illustrations. Despite tough competition, Zepeda selected Vanesa because "she gave personal context to her story, described an enticing recipe without spelling it out and finished with a strong conclusion. She is a natural storyteller."
As her prize, Vanesa will spend the day with Chef Jeffrey Everts to experience behind the scenes of The Houstonian's professional kitchen. She will work side by side with Chef Everts preparing lunch for her family and teachers to enjoy at Olivette. She will become also published author, with her essay featured on both the Recipe for Success and Arte Publico websites. Hats, stickers and other prizes were awarded to six fourth grade semi-finalists. You can read all the school winners' essays here.
We created the contest to help focus our kids on the importance of building family food traditions while at the same time giving them practice in the very writing skills that will be measured by state tests in January.
"Both teachers and students loved the contest," according to Chef Christine Mansfield, our Team Leader at Lyons. "The teachers used it as a classroom tool and many students used it as an excuse to spend more time with their families."
Now that's a real Recipe for Success!
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