Round Lake students create healthy snacks

Students from Round Lake area schools donned tall chef hats Wednesday as they carefully cut bananas, grapes and strawberries for healthy snacks they were preparing as part of the Sodexo 2015 Future Chefs Challenge.

The fourth- and fifth-graders from Murphy, Ellis, Indian Hill, Round Lake Village and Beach elementary were competing in the Round Lake Area Schools finals for the contest, with the winner earning a place in the regional competition.

"Judges are going to be judging how kid friendly the recipe is, how easy it was to make, the appearance and taste of it, how healthy they feel it is, and just the overall healthy attributes for this," said Gwendolyn Williams, general manager of food services for Round Lake Area Unit School District 116. "I think the students are excited, I think the parents are excited, and I think my staff is excited."

The contest, organized by food service company Sodexo, is intended to get students thinking about making healthy food choices and being creative in the kitchen.

Round Lake students are joining more than 2,500 students from more than 1,000 Sodexo-served schools in 29 states taking part in the healthy snack challenge.

"It's fun. I'm nervous about the judges," Beach School student Lilyanna Lopez said as she put whipped cream over her fruit salad. "I'm trying to make it perfect."

After the young chefs finished their creations, the dishes were served to judges, family members, community members and school staff to sample.

Fifth-grader Manuel Amador of Indian Hill Elementary School was chosen the winner with his recipe for a Banana Ginger Smoothie.

If Manuel wins the regional crown, he will join four other national finalists competing for the public's vote online.

Sodexo runs the competition in partnership with first lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move initiative, with the purpose of ending childhood obesity.