Maine DOE Child Nutrition Team Crowns 2025 Farm to School Cook-Off Champion

The Maine Department of Education (DOE) Child Nutrition team is celebrating its 2025 Farm to School Cook-Off champion after a final round of competition on Thursday, April 17. For 10 years, this initiative has promoted the use of local foods in school meals, as school nutrition teams from across the state use locally-sourced ingredients to prepare a breakfast and a lunch, which a panel of judges then scores.

After multiple regional competitions in March, the Leavitt Lunch Crew from MSAD 52 (Turner) and The Flavor Knights from MSAD 60 (North Berwick) competed in the cook-off finals on Thursday in Augusta. David Vargas, MSAD 60 School Nutrition Director, and Andre Roy, Noble High School student, of The Flavor Knights took home a winning plaque and cookbook after preparing a pancake bake for breakfast and monkfish tacos for lunch.

“The Maine DOE Child Nutrition team looks forward to the Farm to School Cook-Off every year and the creativity that it inspires for school meals,” Stephanie Stambach, Maine DOE Child Nutrition Supervisor, said. “This is a wonderful platform to boost our state’s school nutrition professionals, as well as our local farmers and producers.”

The Flavor Knights (Noble High School student Andre Roy, left; MSAD 60 School Nutrition Director David Vargas, right) were crowned the 2025 Farm to School Cook-Off champion.

Local challenge ingredients that competing teams were expected to incorporate this year included eggs from Maine Family Farms and monkfish from the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association. The meals presented to judges were rated based on presentation, taste, and feasibility of use of recipes in a school kitchen.

Monkfish from the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association was one of the local challenge ingredients to be incorporated.

Governor Janet Mills, Maine DOE Commissioner Pender Makin, and Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry Commissioner Amanda Beal attended the cook-off finals on Thursday, recognizing the essential work of school nutrition teams in providing more than 168,000 students statewide with nutritious meals.

“The importance of the role of child nutrition professionals in our state, delivering healthy and delicious food to students multiple times per day, cannot be overstated,” Commissioner Makin said. “We know that the meeting of basic needs, such as hunger, is essential to allowing students to grow and thrive in educational settings. That work would not be possible without the dedication and care of child nutrition staff statewide.”

The Maine Department of Education’s (DOE) 2025 Farm to School Cook-Off took place on April 17, 2025, between school nutrition teams from MSAD 52 and MSAD 60. Maine DOE Commissioner Pender Makin and Governor Janet Mills posed with contestants.  

All recipes presented throughout the cook-off will be shared at an upcoming date in a Maine Farm to School cookbook for other school nutrition teams to reference. You can find past version on the Maine DOE Local Foods in Local Schools webpage.

Congratulations to MSAD 60, MSAD 52, and third cook-off finalist MSAD 27 (Fort Kent), who unfortunately could not compete.