Better Together BC is challenging families across the province to share their go-to hacks for making family meals happen in the first-ever Kitchen Hacks Challenge. The contest, which officially launches today, aims to bring awareness to the importance and lifelong benefits of sharing family meals, while also supporting BC families that are facing added hardship accessing food during COVID-19. BC dairy farmers will donate $100 to local food banks for every contest entry received to support COVID-19 relief efforts.
This video contest is meant to inspire kids, teens and adults to discover the benefits of cooking and eating together by sharing their favourite kitchen hack for the chance to win cash prizes. It replaces the organization’s beloved Hands-on Cook-off contest, which was retired after its tenth anniversary last year.
The contest is easy to enter and has been designed with physical distancing guidelines in mind:
- The contest is open to all residents of BC, and families can enter by sharing their best kitchen hacks from the comfort of their own homes via a video submission online at www.bettertogetherbc.ca/contest.
- Video submissions must be 60 seconds or less.
- The contest is open from April 22nd to May 22nd. Submissions must be received by noon PDT on May 22nd to qualify. For every qualifying entry, BC dairy farmers will donate $100 to local food banks in support of COVID-19 relief efforts.
- Cash prizes include: Grand prize of $1,000 cash awarded to the winning submission and a People’s Choice award of $500 cash. BC dairy farmers will match both amounts in donations to Food Banks BC.
Recent research highlights the link between shared family meals and dietary and family functioning outcomes in children. For example, sharing frequent family meals—which includes cooking and eating together—improves family functioning, family connectedness, communication, expressiveness, and problem solving. Children in families that habitually cook and eat together enjoy lifelong benefits that include healthier eating patterns into adulthood.
“The Kitchen Hacks Challenge was originally planned as a way to help BC families share their best tips for making meals together happen amidst the busy day-to-day schedules so many of us face. Now that families are spending more time together at home, we’ve shifted this challenge to encourage them to reconnect with each other by cooking together and making memories in the kitchen—while also doing our part to support those in the community who need additional help and resources during this time,” says Sydney Massey, Director of Nutrition Education.
All video submissions will be judged by a panel of local judges who will determine the grand prize winner:
- Samantha Gutmanis, Blogger, My Kitchen Love
- Barb Finley, Founder, Project CHEF
- Anna Brisco, Nutrition Educator, BC Dairy Association
- Art Napoleon, TV Personality + Wild Bush Cook
