Event
This event was not terribly difficult to put together, but it took some effort alone. First, I had to request permission from my boss to hold an office wide event.Then I had to find judges and organize the event around their scheduls, keeping my "at lunch" goal in mind. This proved to be more difficult than expected as several potential judges were unwilling to eat vegetables, wanted to participate in the cook-off themselves, or lacked availability.
When the judges were finalized I had to actually book time with two of them, and one was so busy he judged the majority of the contest while in a webex meeting.
After I had the time, date, and judges nailed down I was able to start sending out emails to the office about the upcoming event. At this time I
also created the prizes, "The Coveted Golden Spoon"; which was, in actuality, a wooden spoon spray painted gold. I made one for second and third place as well,
though these were far less coveted.
The event itself went very well. I arranged ahead of time to bring in cheese, sour cream, and to make rice. The day before several of my coworkers got
together and decided to bring additional things, such as styrofoam bowls and frito chips, these really helped the event as well.
The judging was a challenging, and delicious, job. There was a clear winner with who turned out to be a first time chili cooker! She had never cooked chili before the contest and didn't follow a recipe, but it was amazing. As you can see, the golden spoon was, in fact, coveted by the non-winning participants.
Fund raising
This event raised money in two ways. The first was the cooks had to pay $5 each to participate. The majority of the funds
came from office mates who paid to eat the chili. The judging was scheduled just before lunch to encourage audience participation.
At the end the event raised nerely $200 to benefit the child and her family. This event was so successful and popular that it has been repeated
for other charity events.