We got the chance to hang out with Taige at his party last Thursday, and he is seriously one of the coolest kids on the block. He was more than willing to show off his card collection and share his fresh chocolate cake (in between meeting other Itty Bitty Bites characters and getting a sneak peek at the next comic book, of course).

Hey! Want to win a week’s worth of FREE Itty Bitty Bites meals? Just leave a comment on this blog post! At the end of the week, we’ll choose one lucky commenter to take home five Itty Bitty Bites meals – all at once, or one at a time. Perfect for parents who pack their kids’ lunches!

——————————————————-

More posts like this:

Join the Healthy Lunch Challenge!

Columbia’s Back to School A-RAMA

Healthy Vegetarianism Runs in the Family with Mia

]]> http://tomatotalk.earthfare.com/2010/08/31/introducing-taige-our-newest-itty-bitty-bites-character/feed/ 43 http://tomatotalk.earthfare.com/2010/08/16/you-win-cafeteria-story-contest/ http://tomatotalk.earthfare.com/2010/08/16/you-win-cafeteria-story-contest/#comments Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:16:06 +0000 earthfare http://tomatotalk.earthfare.com/?p=2374

Thank you to everyone who entered our lunchtime story contest! I asked for funny, memorable stories and you really delivered! It was tough (but FUN) reading through all the entries and choosing a favorite, but we’ve finally narrowed it down to a winner. This story was a great mix of action, suspense, and a pretty epic food fight. Congratulations, John N!

Here’s his winning story:

“It was 6th grade in 1992. My friends and I were settling into our usual booth to discuss normal topics of the day (i.e. girls, sports and band). We recently got our first government IDs made up and we were comparing our horrible photos. You don’t exactly look your best at the onset of puberty. Anyway, a commotion broke out on the other side of the cafeteria where different cliques were yelling at one another.

Then, out of the corner of my eye I saw something fly across the great expanse. Thinking it was nothing, I settled back into my sandwich. Then, another mysterious object sailed across the fluorescent light. This time a chunk of something appeared on our table. At this point it seemed the mute button was unclicked after being set at full blast and kids roared with laughter, yelling and screaming.

Almost instantly, food began flying from almost every direction. My friends and I sought cover under our little booth’s table while I distinctly remember witnessing a can of Dr. Pepper spewing foam and fizz as it flew across no-man’s-land. The cafeteria was symmetrical which yielded an almost perfect storm for the food fight. Ranks naturally broke down the middle as each group sought protection behind the paneled railings to enter the service line. A good 5-10 minutes passed before virtually all the teachers in the school were brought in to breakup the event.

For the next week each student was subjected to intense interrogation to locate the culprits. We were threatened with the 6th grade dance being cancelled. This eventually proved impossible since 95% of people in the room ended up throwing something. I remember being asked why I didn’t leave. I wasn’t trying to be a smarty, but the excuse of ‘the bell hadn’t rang’ didn’t seem to earn me any fans in the principal’s office.

The dance went on as scheduled, ruler rule in total effect.”

Thanks again to everyone who entered! And be sure to keep an eye on this blog for more contests like this one in the future!

——————————————————————————————

Check out the Healthy Lunch Challenge!

Other posts you may like:

Original Contest Post

Parents vs. School Lunches

Earth Fare Healthy Recipes

We’ve heard what you think about school lunch these days. Now, we want to hear what you remember about your school lunchroom! What’s your BEST school cafeteria memory? It can be gross, funny, a tale of an epic food fight…if it happened and you remember, we want you to tell us about it!

Leave your lunchroom tale in the comments, and on Monday, August 16, you might just be the winner of a $50 Earth Fare gift card!

We’ll be looking for the most memorable lunchroom tale, so don’t hold back! We want to hear YOUR story.

——————————————————————————————————————

Check out the Healthy Lunch Challenge!

Other posts you may like:

Take Our Tomato Winners

Parents vs. School Lunches

Earth Fare Healthy Recipes

Of course, for every contest, there is a winner – for ours, there were several! And here they are:

Customers:

Grand Prize – $250 Earth Fare Gift Card – Agnes

Second Place – $150 Gift Card – Mia

And tied (3 ways!) for 3^rd – Myles

Malia

and Michael

We also held a competition for team member entries. Here are the winners:

1^st place – Mike

2^nd place – Kathryn

3^rd place – Megan

Congratulations, everyone, and thank you for entering! Now, start brainstorming for NEXT year’s contest!

Thank you to EVERYONE who entered and voted in our lunchtime contest!

First place (and a $150 Earth Fare gift card) goes to Farrah Leigh, who got 53 votes. Here’s her lunch:

“I’m at work all day so I pack lunch and a couple snacks. My fave is:

Mock chicken salad
Wheat crackers
Grapes
Carrot sticks or sweet pepper or cucumber slices
String cheese
Apple slices
And maybe even some chai chocolate yum!”

Second  place (and a $75 Earth Fare gift card) goes to Christine Riggs, who got 30 votes.

Third place (and a $50 Earth Fare gift card) goes to B. Lawson.

Thanks again, everyone! Be sure to check back here on Wednesday for ANOTHER fun contest!

——————————————————————————————————————

Check out the Healthy Lunch Challenge!

Other posts you may like:

Original contest post

Parents vs. School Lunches

Earth Fare Healthy Recipes

Lunch is important! Whether you’re working from the 5^th floor or the 5^th grade, it’s a fact of life: the better you eat, the better you feel – and the better you feel, the better you work!

So tell us. What kind of brain food do you pack in YOUR lunch? Do you include a mid-morning snack or a mid-afternoon pick-me-up? Is there a secret ingredient you just can’t leave at home?

We’re looking for the yummiest, healthiest, most creative lunch ideas you’ve got! And the winner is up to YOU.

This is a new kind of contest for the blog. Here’s how it works:

1. Leave us YOUR lunch idea in the comments.
2. Send your friends to this entry!
3. Tell them to click “like” next to your comment.
4. At the end of the week (that’s 5:00 pm on Friday, August 6^th), the comment with the most votes WINS!

First prize will be a $150 Earth Fare gift card. Second prize is a $75 Earth Fare gift card. And third prize is a $50 Earth Fare gift card. So, come on – tell us what you pack for lunch!

UPDATE: Our commenting widget is currently being buggy – for now, leave your vote in the form of a comment. Just tell me the name of the person you’re voting for, and I’ll track the votes that way. I’ll let you know if anything changes!

 Be sure to tag your tweet with the #healthyis hashtag (that’s how we’ll track all the entries). You don’t have to send your tweets directly to @EarthFare, but you DO need to be following the @EarthFare account in order to win.

 Questions? Send them via tweet to @EarthFare.

 We’ll be reviewing entries from today until Friday at 5:00 pm. The winner will be announced on Monday, July 26, and we’ll be sending a $100 gift card to our favorite definition.

 That’s it! To review:

1. What does healthy mean?
2. 140 characters or less
3. Photos are allowed
4. Tag your entry with #healthyis
5. Follow @EarthFare
6. Entries must be submitted by 5:00pm on Friday, July 26
7. Winner gets $100 Gift Card!

Now get to tweeting!

Do you want to get in on the competition? It’s easy! Take a photo of your tomato doing something fun or exciting, and send it our way! It does need to be a real tomato – not a logo or a cartoon. The rest is up to you! Remember – we’re looking for the most creative tomato photographs!

 Check out some of the entries we’ve already received by going to our flickr.

Well? What are you waiting for? Email YOUR entry (with your name and contact information) to information@earthfare.com today!

 The Take our Tomato contest is a photography contest – with a twist. We’re looking for the best photos of Earth Fare TOMATOES that we can find. Get creative! Send your tomato on an adventure, and send us the proof. Email your submissions as a .jpeg to information@earthfare.com, or upload them to your own blog or flickr and send us the link. We’ll notify our winners by August 10, 2010. Check below for more details, and then go take your best shot!

*No purchase necessary to enter Earth Fare’s Take our Tomato Contest. Contest candidate must be over the age of 18. In submitting a picture and/or acceptance of prize constitutes permission to use winner’s name and/or likeness and picture submitted for purposes of advertising and trade, worldwide in perpetuity, without future compensation. Prize winners will be required to verify address prior to awarding the prize. There will only be one winner for first place. Contest winners will be selected at the sole discretion of Earth Fare’s staff.