For registered Austin County 4-H members – The 2025 Austin County 4-H Food Challenge Contest to be held on Friday, October 17th at the AgriLife Extension Office with registration at 5:00 PM and the contest starting at 5:30 PM. Here are the details for this year:

• County registration (recipe as well) due ONLINE: Wednesday, October 8th
• Online Entry HERE: https://forms.gle/EYv5zp2RBV5aFUHg8
• District registration due on 4-H Online – October 20th – November 7th. Late registrations November 8th – 17th
• Age Divisions: JR (3-5th grade), INT (6th – 8th grade), SR (9th – 12th grade)

Some additional helpful information:

• Juniors, Intermediates, and Seniors all advance to district competition. Only seniors are eligible to advance to state!
• Each county may enter a maximum of TWO Junior Teams, TWO Intermediate Teams, and a maximum of TWO Senior teams.
• There is NO cost for participation in the county contest. We are able to host this contest and provide awards to our participants free of charge because of fundraisers like the hamburger stand!
• A team will be made up of at least THREE and no more than FOUR members. (i.e. Juniors and Intermediates may be on the same team, but Junior and Intermediate 4-H members combined to make a team must compete as an Intermediate team. Intermediates will not be allowed to participate on a Senior team.)
• Substitution of team members should be made only if necessary. Only the same number of 4-H members qualifying at the county level will be eligible to participate at the district level. No more than two team members may be substituted, up to the day of the Food Challenge. The substitute 4-H member must have participated in their County Food Challenge or be approved by the County Extension Office to be eligible.
• There will be four food categories in each age division: Appetizer, Main Dish, Side Dish, and Healthy Dessert. Teams will be randomly assigned to a category, but assignments will not be announced until check-in the morning of the contest.
• Each team will have the option of wearing coordinated clothing and/or aprons. Team members must wear closed-toed shoes and have hair restraints according to Texas 4-H Food Challenge Guidelines.
• Hair Restraint: Each team member must wear a hat, hair net and/or other type of hair restraint during the food preparation part of the competition. Examples of acceptable hair restraints include hairnets, bandana with hair completely pulled back, Chef hat with hair restrained inside, or cap with hair completely tucked inside.

All contestants who advance to the District Contest will register on 4-H Online. The District 11 4-H Food Challenge Contest will be held at the Friar Ag Center & Anne Friar Thomas Homemaking Building, in Cuero, TX on December 9th. If you have any questions related to registration for the District Contest, please contact the office.