Charity cook-off will benefit God’s Pantry,
raise awareness that hunger ‘never goes away’

Debra’s Social $timulus, a local fundraising and social initiative, will hold a charity cook-off with God’s Pantry in February that will please food lovers and philanthropists alike.

Cooks for a Cause will be Feb. 3 from 5:30-8:30 p.m at God’s Pantry Food Distribution Warehouse on Jaggie Fox Way. The cook-off features five teams of five cooks who will be given 60 minutes to prepare two dishes with specified ingredients at their cooking stations. The dishes will be judged by a panel of seven judges.

The judges are all Central Kentucky chefs and several are local restaurant owners. The panel includes Ouita Michel, Beth Hanna, Mamadou Savane, Mark Smith, Javier Lanza; Jill Bakehorn and Cooper Vaughan.

“I’ve tried to have a diverse group, like I did with the cooks, from cultural experience to age, gender, etc.,” said Debra Hensley, creator of Debra’s Social $timulus and Cooks for a Cause organizer.

With a focus on “people, planet and purpose,” Hensley created Debra’s Social $timulus as a way to give back “as a business woman in a different way.” Cooks for a Cause is Hensley’s 10th project since starting her initiative in 2008.

Hensley wanted to work with God’s Pantry because of the growing number of people who suffer from hunger.

“I wanted to do something relative to this time of year, when the holidays basically are over. Really, hunger never goes away,” she said. “If anything, the demand has continued to increase, while the struggle for resources gets more and more difficult.”

The event is organized in a manner to promote awareness, as well as allow people to give at their own level because the event is free and open to the public, with “a variety of creative silent auction items,” Hensley said.

Rather than bringing canned food, God’s Pantry asks for donations because of the organization’s “purchasing power,” Hensley said, meaning that for every dollar donated, God’s Pantry can purchase $10 worth of food.

In addition to the silent auction, attendees can enjoy mugs of soup prepared by the seven chef judges and handed out by kids from the Lexington School’s culinary class. The soup recipes, as well as the cook-off recipes, will be written down to create a cookbook for God’s Pantry.

“Not only is it the awareness, but its also an opportunity for somebody to open up their check book,” Hensley said. “And they can do it on their own level. They don’t have to pay a $25 or $50 or $100 ticket. They can give what they can give.”

Visit here to watch a video about the event.