On behalf of the BDS Management and the Green Team, thanks to all of you who attended last  Wednesday's "Great Green & Local" Chili Cook-off. The event was fun for everyone who participated: the eight entrants, the three judges, and all of the BDS staff who came to sample the different chili entries. Thanks to the Green Team for organizing the event, which raised our awareness about buying local foods and its importance for so many reasons. The Green Team made this a "non-disposable" event by ensuring that employees either brought their own dishes & silverware or used the ones provided at the event…even cloth napkins were provided.

The judges (Commissioner Randy Leonard, BOP planner & foodie Jessica Richman, and our Texan maintenance man CW), enjoyed sampling all of the entries and choosing what they considered to be the best chili con carne and vegetarian chili. Jed Scheuermann's "Medicine Hat Bison Chili" was deemed the best chili con carne, and Paul Van Orden's "New York Pride" won the honors for best vegetarian chili. The "people's choice" award went to David Oshin for his "Holy Mole" chili.

Three BDS employees were also recognized at the event by our Director Paul Scarlett for their initiative in promoting and implementing  sustainable ideas:

• Emily Hughes, for volunteering to take plastic "clamshells" from staff's to-go lunches to her local recycling facility, which started as a pilot project to collect them on the 4th floor and has now become institutionalized on all floors;
• Sylvia James, for promoting the use of refillable-only pens for staff, and phasing out the purchasing of non-refillable disposable pens, which has been implemented into the Bureau's purchasing policy;

Tiffani Penson, for bringing green and sustainable topics into the Lunch & Learn series, and using more "green" oriented products to give away at bureau outreach events.

The weather was perfect, the chili was tasty, and the crowd had a good time! Thanks to all for making the event such a great success.

See the video clip of pictures from the event below:

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Nan Stark,

Bureau of Development Services