Tuesday October 21st, the SU AgCenter kicked off AgWeek 2025 with the Ag Cook-Off Challenge. The Cook-Off Challenge has become an AgWeek tradition, with the intent of allowing students within the College of Agriculture to use the provided supplies to creatively express themselves, their culture, and their connection to agriculture.
Seven of Southern University’s student organizations faced off in the cookoff challenge in an attempt to raise funds for their group, including the Child Development Club, the College of Ag Ambassadors, the Animal Science Pre-Vet Club, the Society of American Foresters, MANRRS, the Alpha Zeta Honors Society, and the Elite Fashion Society. Teams were given two hours to prepare, cook, and plate their meals to present to the judges, using supplies provided to them by the SU Ag Center of Excellence for Nutrition, including Southern University Natural (SUN) Beef, a product derived from a research project on our very own campus! Destiny Howard, a member of the SU chapter of MANRRS acknowledges, “The hardest part about the challenge was choosing what to make and making three things from scratch.”
The challenge featured three of Southern’s prized administrators as special guest judges: Mr. Christopher Levy, Mrs. Si-Arah Jones, and Dr. Orlando McMeans, Chancellor-Dean of the College of Agricultural, Human, and Environmental Sciences (CAHES). Each team’s dish was judged on their presentation and creativity, taste, use of their ingredients, teamwork and cleanliness, and the cultural significance or personal connection to each dish.
For the final result of the competition, in third place, the Child Development club, who were awarded a $100 cash prize and a feature in the CAHES newsletter. In second place, the Alpha Zeta Honors Society, who were awarded a $200 cash prize, certificate of recognition, and partial fundraising support. Finally, the winners of the challenge, the SU Elite Fashion Society, were honored with a $300 cash prize for their organization, a plaque of recognition, and a spotlight on the AgCenter Instagram page. Winning team member Amaya Johnson remarked “The most enjoyable part of the competition was watching everyone try the food and watching the expressions on everyone’s faces.”
The Ag Cook-Off Challenge brought out the creative and resourceful sides within each of these groups, allowing them to fully embody the goal of CAHES, which combines hands-on learning, student leadership, and community engagement through agriculture and human sciences. Dr. McMeans spoke fondly of the challenge stating, “My favorite part about judging was listening to the originality and how students worked as a team to support each other. The creativity was outstanding, these students are not only stars inside of class, but they can also be original outside of class.”
