Children’s Aid held its sixth annual Iron Go!Chefs competition on June 9, in Harlem. The Frederick Douglass Center gymnasium was transformed into something of a kitchen stadium, where our young iron chefs went head to head for the glory of victory. Guest judges included our very own president and CEO, Phoebe Boyer; Anthony Paris, the executive/head Chef at Crosby Street Hotel; Patti Lubin, senior counsel and senior advisor to U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand; and Barbara Turk, the mayor’s director of food policy. Special guest Cory Nieves, owner of Mr. Cory’s cookies hosted the event’s nutrition bee.

Elementary, middle, and high schoolers from across Children’s Aid centers and community schools faced off in the competition to prepare mouthwatering—and nutritious— recipes. The winner this year in the elementary school competition was the Plat-O-Food team from C.S. 61 with their amazing whole wheat farfalle with roasted chickpeas and kale recipe. In the middle and high school ages competition, and the Ultimate Chefs from M.S. 301: Paul L. Dunbar School took the prize with their tasty and very creative plantain boats with black beans and eggplant recipe.     

The Go!Chefs program is a nutrition education and cooking curriculum for elementary, middle, and high school youth who attend programs with Children’s Aid throughout the city of New York. Since 2005, Go!Chefs has educated youth on growing, preparing, and enjoying whole foods in efforts to educate youth on food literacy and build lifelong skills. Childhood obesity is a serious health condition affecting over one-third of American children across the country. Our Go!Chefs food service programs provide healthy meals to approximately 1,500 children each day in our Early Childhood, School Age and Adolescence programs.

Congratulations to all of the aspiring chefs for their professional high-quality performance.