Ishpeming Students in the 2026 Healthy Cooking Class Participate in Cooking Challenge
The Healthy Cooking program has been a fun and educational part of the Farm-to-School program for the past 6 years at Ishpeming Middle School led by Partridge Creek Farm. This year, in 2026, 5th and 6th grade students participated in the Healthy Cooking program for 7 weeks over the winter. During this program 5th graders learned skills like knife safety and began cooking on mini-stoves. While 6th grade students built on cooking basics they learned in 5th grade.
The Ishpeming High School Flipping the Food System Horticulture students mentored the 6th grade students this year in both the Farm-to-School program in the School Garden and during the Healthy Cooking program. High School students continued to mentor students during their cooking competition, offering them advice and homemade apple cider vinegar as an ingredient choice.
In the last cooking class of the year, students participate in a Healthy Cooking challenge. In this challenge, students working in their groups, made a noodle based dish, and a rice based dish, with a fat (i.e. oil), a protein, and a vegetable. This dish is then presented to a panel of judges and the best dish wins!
Thank You To Our Healthy Cooking Sponsors and Partners
The Healthy Cooking Program was made possible by the support of the West End Health Foundation, who generously funded our 2025 Healthy Cooking program, and supported us in purchasing new equipment for the program. Thank you also, to the Marquette Food Co-op , for supplying our students with fresh locally grown produce!
Further Healthy Cooking Information
The Winning Group
All of our 5th and 6th graders are the real winners! They patiently learned how to cook and try new foods over 6 weeks, which is extremely impressive.
The cooking competition winning teams were:
Garden Ramsey 5th Grade
Group 1 5th Grade
The Squad 6th Grade
The Cooking Gods 6th Grade
The Judges
Each year we invite community partners and Ishpeming School District Staff to participate in this fun challenge where they can see students’ cooking skills shine. This year we were joined by:
Seth Hoopingarner, Ishpeming Middle & High School Principal
Penny Barney, Ishpeming Middle & High School Guidance Counselor
Shana Donner, PCF Operations and Finance Executive Director
Alex Palzewicz, Northwoods Test Kitchen and Ishpeming School Cafeteria Staff Member
Phil Carter, Partridge Creek Compost Former Executive Director
Dan Perkins, PCF & PCC Founder
Ishpeming 5th and 6th grade teachers, Morgan Kangas-Miller, Zuri Irwin, and Maddie Nylund
