Manhattan Fourth-Grader Wins $10,000 to Make Over Her School's Cafeteria

An elementary school student in Manhattan was named a finalist in the Ben's Beginners Cooking Contest, receiving $5,000 for her family and a $10,000 cafeteria makeover for her school, Midtown West Elementary.

This academic year, Midtown West Elementary in Manhattan is receiving a cafeteria makeover thanks to one “enthusiastic” fourth-grader.

In January, 8-year-old Arden Wolfe was announced as the runner-up in the Ben’s Beginners Cooking Contest, a competition hosted by the Uncle Ben’s brand with the goal to bring kids and parents together to learn about healthy eating through cooking.

Arden’s video entry of Roof Top Rice was one of 1,000 submissions in the contest. After receiving both national and international votes on the Uncle Ben’s website, Arden was named a finalist and awarded a $5,000 prize for her family and $10,000 to remake her school’s cafeteria

“I was really happy and I felt like the luckiest person in the world,” Arden says of the award. “It really didn’t matter that I was just a finalist.”

Arden’s mom Jensen Wolfe says that the Midtown West Elementary community rallied around Arden by showing support in several ways, such as making signs and arriving early to school one morning for a FOX 5 news piece on Arden’s role in the competition.

“There was a really special night at the school spring concert,” Jensen recalls. “During the concert, the principal got up on stage and said, ‘I don’t know if all of you know, but one of our students is a finalist in this contest. Please get out your smart phones right now and vote for her.’”

The key components to a winning video in this contest, says Matt Hurst, corporate affairs manager of Mars Food, are enthusiastic children who are excited about cooking and healthy, fun recipes that families would be interested in.

“Arden’s video had a great idea that was really fun to watch,” Hurst says. “She took [her recipe] up to her roof top and ate it with her mom up there. She was enthusiastic, smiling a lot, and she added that uniqueness to her recipe.”