Elementary School staff holding crock pot cook-off to raise funds for local food pantry

november 30, 2009

It’s the Schuylerville Central School District version of “Top Chef” as school district cheftestants and Saratoga celebrity chef Lou Maggiore use their culinary creativity and face off in the "Crock Pot Cook-Off" on Wednesday, December 2, 2009. All proceeds from the event will benefit the Greater Schuylerville Food Pantry. The funds will be raised from donations made by each cooking team and the $5 per person “devouring fee” that will be collected from each district employee who participates in the tasting. (The event, which takes place beginning at 3:20 p.m. in the Elementary School, is open to Schuylerville Elementary School staff members only.)

Planning for this fundraiser has been in the works for several weeks—enough time for teams to develop interesting menus, as well as some surprises for the tasters. One team (which includes a principal and the school superintendent) has christened itself the “Crock Pot Crackpots” and will don specially-designed t-shirts for the occasion. Other surprises are also in store from the other teams.
Each team is required to offer four crock pot entrees—one that includes pork or chicken, a second with turkey or beef chili, a third crock pot with a chowder that includes potato and corn and a fourth pot that contains a stew with beef or sausage. Other than those restrictions, cheftestants are free to use their creativity in the cooking challenge. Schuylerville School District staff members have eight teams, each with four members; chef Maggiore rounds out the competition and will be presenting his recipes as a confident single-member “team.”

Recipes in each crock pot will be rated by the tasters and the top chefs from the winning team will receive front-row parking spots for a week—a coveted prize considering the challenging parking situation on Schuylerville’s campus! Of course, the real winner will be the local food pantry.

The Schuylerville Crock Pot Cook-Off was organized by first-grade teacher Andrew Jennings and fourth-grade teacher David Mehan as a way to give back to the community and help families who reside in the school district. The event is one of several in the district that have taken place to benefit local food pantries, including a recent fundraiser that resulted in nearly $1,700 in monetary donations for the Greater Schuylerville Food Pantry and the St. Therese’s Food Pantry.