The Kentucky Department of Agriculture’s Farm to School Program connects local farmers to school districts to make fresh Kentucky Proud foods available to Kentucky’s school children. In 2013, the KDA Farm-to-school Kentucky Junior Chef competition was launched to teach students to cook and educate them about the importance of buying and consuming locally grown food.  Since its inception, hundreds of Kentucky students have participated in the Farm to School Junior Chef competition. The competition opens with teams submitting recipes to be judged and culminates in the state tournament at the Kentucky State Fair in August in which teams cook their recipes before a panel of judges.

In Montgomery County, a 4-H project leader has led the team in the annual challenge to create a dish containing locally produced ingredients. This year the team worked to creating a Greek Turkey Bowl in January, fine-tuning the recipe in February and March, testing the recipe with high school students then submitting the recipe for evaluation in mid-April prior to receiving an invitation to the state contest in August.  The team’s hard work paid off resulting in Montgomery County winning the Junior Chef championship for the fourth time and earning a trip to the Southern Regional Junior Chef contest in May 2025.  

Winning the contest is quite an achievement but the hours of recipe development, nutrition analysis, safe food practice and preparation resulted in the teens learning to plan a nutritious dish utilizing locally produced ingredients; practicing safe food handling; improving their food preparation knowledge and skills and heightening their awareness of local food production and the benefit of incorporating local foods into their diets.