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Charlotte Amalie
Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesSt. Thomas 8-Year-Old Cooks Her Way to White House

St. Thomas 8-Year-Old Cooks Her Way to White House

Sakari Clendinen, an 8-year-old student at Ulla Miller Elementary School, cooked her way into a meeting with President and first lady Barack and Michelle Obama.

Clendinen was the Virgin Islands winner of the 2013 Healthy Lunchtime Challenge, sponsored by the White House Let’s Move initiative, and Tuesday she was one of 53 students age 8 to 14 from all across the U.S. who gathered at the White House for a Kids’ State Dinner, hosted by the first lady.

Michelle Obama said the event is one of her favorite items on the White House calendar each year.

"I mean, we do a lot of cool stuff here. We’ve got singers and stars and world leaders, but this, probably throughout the entire White House, is one of our favorite events because we get to see how talented and creative and brilliant all of you young people can be," the first lady said, in comments available on the White House website.

She told her young audience that, in many ways, it was just like a state dinner, with the reception line, a red carpet, a press contingent off to the side and waiting to get through security – although visiting heads of state usually are not entertained by a balloon-animal artist. But it was much different in at least one respect, she added. The winners were allowed to eat with their fingers if they wanted. The first lady admonished parents and guardians not to stop the young chefs from using their fingers if the spirit moved them.

That comment brought a protest from one special guest who stopped by the luncheon to meet the children – President Obama.

"Michelle never said to me I can just pick up something with my fingers at a state dinner. So that’s not fair," the president said, drawing laughter from the young and old in the audience.

The president told the students they are establishing habits that will help them to a healthier life and providing an example for their communities.

"You’re setting a great example for your classmates, and I suspect you’re setting a good example for your parents, who sometimes may not always be eating as healthy as they’re supposed to," the president said in remarks quoted on the website. "So you’re really making a difference in all the communities and all the states all across the country. We could not be prouder of you. And we’re really proud of you winning this challenge."

The winners at Tuesday’s luncheon were among more than 1,300 entrants from all 50 states and the territories. Each entry was judged both on its taste and creativity but, most importantly, on how healthy it is, as based on the "My Plate" standard, the nutrition standard which has replaced the "four food groups" and the "food pyramid" in nutrition education.

(The My Plate standard can be reviewed at http://www.choosemyplate.gov/)

Sakari’s winning entry was simple but delicious and nutritious – zucchini pancakes with a passion fruit and banana smoothie.

In her introduction in the Healthy Lunchtime Challenge Cookbook (available for downloading here http://www.letsmove.gov/sites/letsmove.gov/files/TheEpicuriousHealthyLunchtimeChallengeCookbook2013.pdf) Sakari said she was inspired by the pancakes that are a tradition for her family’s celebrations.

"These have a healthy twist and are delicious. At first we were going to use sour cream, but I don’t like that. So we made a cream cheese and yogurt mixture that I love. Bananas and passion fruit grow in our yard and we make really tasty smoothies with them to go along with the pancakes," she wrote.

The entries were judged by panel from the organizations that teamed up with the first lady to launch the Let’s Move initiative: the Department of Education, the Department of Agriculture, and Epicurious, a food fancier website.

Chef Sam Kass, executive director of the Let’s Move Initiative, praised the quality of the entries.

"There’s been some dynamite dishes, I mean really, there’s a couple of things that I would cook for the first family," he said.

First lady Michelle Obama listed off some of the dishes that the contestants had concocted: Banana’s Black Bean Burritos, Confetti Peanut Ginger Party Pasta, Pan Seared Mississippi Catfish on a Bed of River Rice, Bring It On Brussels Sprout Wrap and Slam-Dunk Veggie Burger.

She particularly singled out one entry, submitted by a young cook who can’t eat gluten.

Of the recipe submitted by Olivia Neely from Kansas, Obama said, “Olivia’s crust is gluten-free and it is made of cauliflower, egg, low-fat cheese and spices. And when Sam Kass – who is the Let’s Move executive director and assistant White House chef – tasted it … he didn’t believe that there wasn’t any wheat in it. He was skeptical. The health guy was skeptical. So skeptical that he walked down to the kitchen and asked the chef whether they’d slipped in some wheat to make sure that the crust tasted right. But they told him, nope, no wheat; just the ingredients Olivia put in the recipe."

"You all have created nutritious, delicious dishes inspired by the MyPlate nutritional guidelines for healthy meals," she said. "And you all stood out among a pool of more than 1,300 submissions for this contest. So this was no easy task. If you deal in statistics and odds, the odds were pretty tough getting one of these seats at this table. So you should be very proud of yourselves."

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