Durant Intermediate School student participated in a nutritional competition against each other last week.
As part of the Sodexo annual Future Chefs: Healthy Salad Challenge, eight intermediate school student were chosen to make their salad recipes to determine whose was best.
Sixth-grader, Blayne Barker won Thursday’s competition with her Chicken Pasta Salad. Sixth-grader Dawson Simeroth took second place and Judge’s Choice with his Sano Venado Salad and fifth-grader Tristan Harts’s Strawberry and Chicken salad won third place.
Sodexo is the food service used by Durant public schools. According to a media advisory from the company, this annual program was created to get students thinking about making healthy food choices in life while also encouraging them to get active and creative in the kitchen.
The advisory also stated that Durant Public Schools students are joining more than 1,750 other students at 943 Sodexo-served school sites in 28 states nationally in this competition.
All students in the intermediate school were able to submit recipes and the eight of these were chosen to compete against each other Thursday, March 28.
The winner of Thursday’s competition will be considered for one of the 27 regional finalist awards. Regional finalists will compete to become one of five national finalists competing for public votes for on a special Future Chefs YouTube channel.
The students were given approximately one hour to prepare their salads which included one display plate and five judging plates.
Recipes prepared on Thursday were judged on appearance, taste and nutritional value. Bonus points were also given for the use of specific ingredients such as ground beef.


















