GHAPS staff prepares for Iron Chef competition

Sat, Nov 7, 2009    to del.icio.us

Staff at Grand Haven Area Public Schools will be cooking up healthy meals in a districtwide Iron Chef competition.

Beginning Monday, employees will compete within their buildings, cooking up a main entree that must be nutritious and serve six people. The presented dishes, which must also list the ingredients that may be purchased from local grocery stores and cooking instructions, as well as calories per serving, will be judged at the end of the week.

Each building will select a winner on Nov. 13 who will advance to the districtwide competition. The winner of the districtwide competition will win a $200 gift certificate from Bed, Bath and Beyond, prepare their entree for the school board and garner the title, "GHAPS Iron Chef." The winner, as well as fellow recipe entries, will also be featured in a GHAPS Iron Chef cookbook.

"We see this as a way to hop on the bandwagon and put a chef's apron on and participate," said Micki Zaleski, GHAPS administrative coordinator of human services. "It's a fun event for colleagues."

The GHAPS Iron Chef competition — named after the popular TV show on Food Network — is part of the district's "Wellness for all" initiative that began last fall.

The district's first wellness event, a "Polar Express" walk, challenged all 900 employees to exercise every week with a goal to walk 12,436 — the distance from the North Pole to the South Pole — from January to March, according to Zaleski. GHAPS employees surpassed that goal, walking — or skipping, biking or running — nearly 40,000 miles.

This year's wellness event was developed after 44 percent of polled employees said they would like to see a healthy cooking event.

Five school employees will judge the Iron Chef districtwide competition, which will be held at 4:30 p.m. Nov. 19 at the high school. Spectators are welcome to cheer on your favorite Iron Chef.