Michelle Obama to host ‘State Dinner’ at White House for healthy recipe winners

First lady Michelle Obama plans to host a “State Dinner” in the White House this summer for 56 winners of a healthy recipe contest. The contest, announced Monday, represents a combined effort by the Obama’s Let’s Move! anti-obesity initiative, the Departments of Education and Agriculture, and online recipe site Epicurious.

"We all want to ensure that our kids are eating nutritious, delicious food at every meal, and as a mom I know that parents are always looking for new ideas to make that happen,” Obama said in a statement on the Let’s Move! blog. “With parents and kids all across the country getting creative in the kitchen, I know we'll find healthy meals that every family will enjoy. And I can’t wait to try the kids’ creations myself.”

Winners will all be between the ages of 8 and 12, but according to the official contest rules a parent or guardian older than 18 must submit each entry and will be allowed to accompany their child to the White House event.

All entries must be received by June 17, and only one child from each of the 50 states, plus D.C., Puerto Rico and U.S. territories, will be chosen for the dinner set to take place at the White House in August. Some of the winning entries will be served at dinner, according to the announcement.

The entries will be judged primarily on how well they incorporate the Department of Agriculture's MyPlate nutritional guidelines, and each entry—which can either be a single recipe or the description of a complete lunch meal—should include all of the food groups as represented in the guidelines: fruit, vegetables, whole grains, protein, and dairy.

According to the official rules, the judges will rank finalists’ dishes by nutritional value for 50 percent of the overall score, take taste into account for 25 percent, then 15 percent for creativity and originality, 5 percent for affordability and 5 percent for the included story explaining the submission.

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