4-H food teams place high at San Angelo

By Kathy Thomson

Ten local 4-H members competed at the District 7 Food Challenge at the San Angelo Fair Grounds on Wednesday, Jan. 22, and all three of their teams brought back ribbons from both the district show and the San Angelo Stock Show & Rodeo Food Challenge contest.

“Our junior team placed first in the district,” said Shackelford County agent and 4-H leader Kloey Painter. “Then they also placed first at the entire stock show! It was a big deal, and I was beyond proud of them.”

Tara Cauble, Hattie Braly, and Charli Trail made up the junior team.

“Both of my intermediate teams did wonderful too,” said Painter. “They both placed fifth at the district level and at the San Angelo stock show. This was amazing because it was so competitive this year with 113 teams total competing in the junior and intermediate levels.”

Myleigh Leveridge, Jalea Bowman, Abi Hale, and Kenzie Neve made up one of the intermediate teams.

Landon Kreitler, Sidney Russell, and Mimi Ivy were the second intermediate team from Shackelford County.

Intermediate and junior teams do not advance to the state 4-H contest.

This was only the second year for Food Challenge to be included in the events at the San Angelo stock show.

The event allows youth to use their knowledge in preparing nutritious and safe meals and snacks to create a dish using only a predetermined set of surprise ingredients. 

From those ingredients, team members must identify and prepare the dish, then make a presentation to the judges.

“They have 40 minutes to cook, prepare their dish, and prepare a presentation for the judges,” said Painter.

The local teams had practiced together for several months, with volunteer Kristie Smith coaching them along with Painter and several of the mothers.