MUSKEGON, Mich. — A Muskegon high school program that puts student chefs in charge of creating fresh, local meals for roughly 26,000 county students has earned national recognition from the Chef Ann Foundation through its Food System Coordinator Elissa Penczar.
WATCH: National award recognizes Muskegon students cooking fresh, local meals for county schools
Penczar was named a 2025 'School Food Renegade' by the Chef Ann Foundation for her work getting students to create and promote fresh, local produce in school meals.
"It means that nationally I am recognized for all the wonderful work my students and the community here in Muskegon have done to have kids create and promote fresh, local whole fruits and vegetables in their meals," Penczar explained.
The recognition comes as Penczar faces new challenges in providing fresh produce to students.
"One of my greatest concerns right now is that the 10 Cents a Meal program was eliminated from our state budget, and that is what incentivizes us all to be able to buy more local food like this in our schools," Penczar said.
Without the 10 Cents a Meal program, she says kids in Muskegon County would revert to eating canned fruits and vegetables instead of fresh, Michigan-grown produce.
"They're not getting what's right here, grown in Michigan that's local, grown from the farmer next door," Penczar said. "I just know getting them fresh local food into their diets every day, it makes them better and stronger."
As I detailed in September, the Cultivate Michigan program, housed at the Career Tech Center in Muskegon, teaches students in the three-credit course, called Hospitality and Food Management, to develop recipes using seasonal, locally-sourced ingredients.
After proper taste testing, the approved meals are served to all the students across the county.
This current featured ingredient is winter squash, with students creating dishes like butternut squash apple pudding, honey roasted cilantro butternut squash, and curried butternut squash soup.
High school juniors and seniors participating in the Cultivate Michigan program represent 11 of Muskegon's public school districts and three charter and private schools.
Student chefs Ilayah Johnson and Austin Daniels are among those cooking for their peers.
"I love food, as I'm quite sure everyone does, and I really have a passion for it," Ilayah said.
And Austin said the experience has sparked his interest in potentially becoming a professional chef.
"I've taken a recent interest in cooking because it's just really fun to do. It feels nice to experiment with the food that I have around me and to make meals that are to my fitting," Austin said. "It's kind of building trust in the community where we get to hand food that we've made to people that are sort of in our age range, maybe lower, maybe higher, and have them sort of take an interest in that too."
The taste tests for these meals begin in mid-November, with final approved recipes being served countywide at no additional cost to students in January.
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