The fifth year of Fifty Men Who Can Cook raised almost $112,000 to help the College Station school system.
Cal McNeill, President of the CSISD Education Foundation, says 64 men donated their time by taking a health class and preparing 200 samples, while more than 1,200 attendees helped make the cook-off a success.
McNeill says the funds allow local educators to think outside the box for new ways to use technology, ideas, and teaching methods that aren’t traditionally supported through the budgeting process, and it’s wonderful to see teachers having the freedom to use cutting-edge technology in the classrooms.
He says about $65,000 will go towards grants, and some of the funds will go towards Success 24/7.
He says the distribution of checks, which will be in mid April, is an especially moving experience, and does much more for the schools than simply give purchasing power.
McNeill says teachers are fighting to educate young people in a constrained budget, having to do more with much less, and putting their personal funds into the classrooms, all the while under massive pressure to perform.
He says that when the grant committee shows up beating on the drums to give them money, it rejuvenates the whole campus.
McNeill says the grants show teachers, students, and staff, that there are people who believe in and support the school district.
He says he knows this year’s winners, but his lips are sealed until next month, when the celebratory grant patrol will go through the school district awarding the prizes.
Cal McNeill visits with WTAW’s Kat McMullen