UWT Pantry hosts their 1st Pantry cook off event

UW Tacoma’s Pantry hosted their first cook-off event Nov. 20 from noon – 2 p.m. The event, or­ganized by the Pantry and the Center for Equity and Inclusion, was held in the West Coast Grocery atrium. The goal of the event was to promote the Pantry and showcase recipes from food items found in the Pantry.

“In a nutshell, this event was created by our student workers who work in the Pantry,” Nedral­ani Mailo, program support supervisor for the CEI, said. “We thought that by having a cook-off it [would] help promote the Pantry to the entire campus community… and help to diminish or lessen the stigma folks have about visiting or using food pantries. By having more social-like events, we hope this will in turn normalize the use of the Pantry for students who use its services.”

At the event, attendees lined up at the food table and could eat any of the available dishes made by staff or faculty. The dishes for the event in­cluded arroz con gandules, puttanesca, sourdough bread and crockpot cinnamon roll casserole. Each of the dishes were made having used one item from the Pantry.

After tasting the different options, students voted for the dish they enjoyed the most or which contestant they thought did the best.

The winner of the competition was Alice Few, a UWT institutional data analyst, who made the pasta puttanesca. As the winner, Few received the Pantry cook-off champion chef hat and apron.

The cook-off will be hosted again during win­ter quarter, where champions will face-off and new contestants can compete.

“We encourage staff and faculty to participate in a way to support our students here and a fun way to help support the Pantry,” Mailo said. “For students, this is a great way to showcase the many different dishes that can be made using simple ingredients that can be found in the Pantry.”

Students interested in finding out more about the Pantry should visit the Pantry’s website at
tacoma.uw.edu/thepantry