[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 58 (Tuesday, May 3, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Page S2621]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 VERMONTS' JUNIOR IRON CHEF COMPETITION

 Mr. SANDERS. Madam President, today I wish to honor the 
students who participated in Vermont's fourth annual Junior Iron Chef 
Competition. Forty Vermont middle schools and 16 Vermont high schools 
sent teams to the day-long event, a cooking competition which promotes 
local agriculture and healthy choices in school nutrition. I was very 
impressed, when I attended the competition, to see the creativity and 
energy the students brought to this endeavor.
  Vermont's Junior Iron Chef Competition brings aspiring chefs together 
for a timed ``cook-off.'' Middle schools face off in one division and 
high schools in another. Each team is composed of up to five students 
and is accompanied by an adult supervisor who is allowed to offer 
guidance but not take part in the actual cooking.
  Contestants must use their culinary skills to create original school 
lunch dishes using at least five ingredients produced by local farmers. 
Prizes were awarded in three categories. I would like to recognize the 
winners from each category and commend the students from all competing 
schools for their excellent effort. Teams from Twin Valley swept the 
Best in Show prizes; Team Murdock winning at the middle school level 
and Hakuna Matata for high school. The Barre City Chefs of Barre City 
Elementary Middle School won the award for Most Creative Dish for 
middle schools and the Food Fighters from Centerpoint School won in the 
high school category. The awards for Greatest Number and Best Use of 
Local Ingredients went to the Barretown Bobcats of Barre Town Middle 
School and the Rebel Chefs from South Burlington High School.
  In addition to extending education beyond the traditional classroom, 
I admire the competition for promoting local agriculture and healthy 
eating choices. Junior Iron Chef attempts to change the often stale 
homogeneity of school lunches by bolstering what is now a statewide 
effort, led by groups like Vermont Food Education Every Day, FEED, and 
the Burlington School Food Project. It attempts, successfully, to 
reconnect young Vermonters with our state's agricultural roots and to 
restore a bond between our schools and the food that Vermont produces.
  Vermont is, I believe, among the leaders in promoting small scale 
agriculture. While Vermont has long been known for its dairy farms, 
smaller scale agriculture is growing rapidly in our State.
  Scientific studies have shown that the health of Americans is 
threatened by an overdependence on fast food, on sugar-enhanced drinks, 
on snacks low in nutrition and high in fats. Too often we, adults and 
children alike, turn to processed fast foods instead of eating 
nutritionally balanced meals. Our national diet is, unfortunately, 
responsible for many unhealthy results, including a surge in both 
childhood obesity and childhood diabetes. Creative efforts like 
Vermont's Junior Iron Chef Competition are terribly important in the 
effort to effectively combat unhealthy diets and the rise of childhood 
obesity and childhood diabetes.
  To the Junior Iron Chef Competition sponsors, Vermont's agriculture 
community and its forward thinking school systems, to those who 
organized the event, to the adult supervisors, and especially to the 
Vermont students who participated in the Junior Iron Chef Competition, 
let me offer my congratulations.

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