Local student Carmen Gray in national cooking contest finals

Congratulations to Carmen Gray, who is the only Pacific Northwest contender in the final round of a kids’ cooking contest. She and 24 others are in the running for the Ben’s Beginners grand prize – $30,000 for their school cafeteria, and $15,000 for the winner. Carmen is a 4th grader at Fairmount Park Elementary; her family explains that the prize money for the school can be used at its discretion: “Some possible uses are: a learning garden, composting program, and/or healthy food related artwork for the bare walls. As you know, the school is new and while we have all the basics, it is pretty stark in the cafeteria.” The contest sponsors also will present “a hometown celebration with an appearance by NY Chef Marcus Samuelsson.” Carmen entered by making a video for her recipe “Brown Rice Bean Burger” (using the sponsor’s product) and now needs votes to win. You can see her video and vote (no strings attached – you don’t have to sign up for anything, register, or take social-media action) by going here daily until November 26th. Good luck, Carmen!

8 Replies to "Local student Carmen Gray in national cooking contest finals"

  • Sillygoose November 15, 2014 (7:37 pm)

    Great job, very exciting to see the youth involved in something that they love doing! Good Luck!!

  • Proud Auntie November 15, 2014 (8:10 pm)

    Way to go Carmen, your video is so much fun and the recipe is awesome. Please everyone take a few seconds to vote, it is really just a click, no sign in or personal info required!

  • wscultures November 15, 2014 (8:24 pm)

    Great video! I will vote daily! Home cooking skills are so important for kids to learn.

  • Star55 November 15, 2014 (10:39 pm)

    I hope the blog will do a simple daily reminder for all of us to vote.

  • Klk November 16, 2014 (10:36 am)

    Congratulation, Carmen! Way to go! You have my daily vote. If you win I wonder if you might consider donating some of the money to another WS school since Fairmount is brand new. Just something to consider. Either way, best of luck to you!

  • ACG November 16, 2014 (11:38 pm)

    Good luck, Carmen. Voting was super easy (no strings attached). If you haven’t done it, go for it and vote!!

  • lbe November 17, 2014 (9:25 am)

    Yep – voted and spread the word via Facebook too! And good idea above – added reminder to vote daily!

  • wscultures November 26, 2014 (10:04 am)

    Last day to vote! Shared via Facebook and Twitter, too! Have a great Thanksgiving!

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