The deadline for high school cooking teams to enter the 2015 Farm to School Junior Chef competition has been extended to March 12 due to winter weather.

Kentucky students in grades 9-12 are eligible for the competition sponsored by the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, which is designed to offer youth the opportunity to learn valuable skills in recipe development, food preparation, marketing, public presentation, organization, teamwork and community involvement. The program is intended to stimulate interest in local agriculture, create a nontraditional market for Kentucky producers, increase quality of products available to school cafeterias, and ultimately increase consumption of produce by Kentucky students.

About 350 students have participated in the Junior Chef competition in its first two years. Teams of three to five students will take part in district competitions in April. Regional competitions will be held in May, and 16 regional champions will advance to the state competition in August at the Kentucky State Fair in Louisville.

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