Chef Ruby Arthur of PieBird Restaurant was awarded the Iron Carrot at Lunch In, an Iron Chef-style competition held at Hunter Elementary School Cct. 13, for her winning healthy lunch creation featuring carrots, the secret ingredient. Chef Arthur prevailed over Chef Chad McIntyre of Market Restaurant in a close competition to win over the taste buds of six student judges and one teacher in the second Lunch In event held in Wake County.

Sponsored by AHA, Lunch In is designed to raise awareness and engage the community to advocate for fresh, local healthy school lunches in Wake County.  “Educating the students and their families about the foods available locally in Wake County and how we can work together to get more local foods into schools is what Lunch In is all about.” Chef Arthur joined Aiken on WRAL on Wednesday to talk about the event; watch the video clip here!

Working in the school kitchen for one hour, Chef Arthur prepared a vegetable and ground beef ragout with a butternut squash and carrot puree, along with an herb salad of carrot greens, arugula, thyme and rosemary. Chef McIntyre prepared an herbed carrot meatloaf with homemade ketchup, white sweet potato tater tots, a beet, carrot and parsley pasta salad, and a carrot shortbread cookie.  

Hunter students had participated in a healthy recipe contest previously, and one winner from each grade was selected to serve as a judge in the Iron Carrot competition. The judges agreed all the foods were winners in the close competition and that it was hard to choose the best dish. Judges included students Abby Crocker, Merkenzee Wells, Ellia Jones, Jack Marini, Abbey Gold, Kamellia Karimpour and Hunter staffer Naomi Przygoda. (Second grade judge Greg Liebman was not present.

Hunter students and their families enjoyed sampling local food, gathered healthy meal and snack ideas, created vegetable sculptures, learned about school meals and decorated paper plates to send to the N.C. General Assembly urging legislators to support improving child nutrition in schools.

AHA is working with a team of volunteers in the community to make fresh, local, and healthy food choices an integral part of Wake County students’ school day. AHA held the first Lunch In last March at Underwood Elementary School and will organize an additional event at another Wake County school soon. AHA is developing a toolkit to enable schools to plan their own Lunch In events to engage students and the entire school community in learning about healthy, local foods and advocating for more local food in schools.

Thanks to the Community
AHA thanks Chef Arthur and Chef McIntyre for their cheerful support of this Lunch In and their culinary expertise, along with Steve Mangano, Holly Taylor and Sarig Agassi of Pullen Place Cafe & Catering, Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, Amy Gilbert, Eastern Carolina Organics (ECO) for fresh food donations, the entire Hunter PTA Wellness Committee and Parker Poe Law Firm for its sponsorship of the Iron Carrot Award.

Many thanks also to the organizations that shared food samples and information with Hunter families! 

• Bee Blessed Pure Honey
• Crumb
• EarthFare
• Inter-Faith Food Shuttle
• Hunter PTA Wellness Committee
• Lil Chefs
• Pullen Place: Cafe & Catering
• Raleigh Downtown Farmers Market
• The Produce Box
• Toxic Free NC
• Tropical Smoothie Cafe