Project Reach: The Haymarket Challenge

The Haymarket Challenge is a competition between teams within the different classes at the Project REACH program. Students are separated into teams, and are required to create a unique smoothie that contains both fruits and vegetables with a ten dollar budget. Their smoothies are then compared by judges, who decide a winner based on the taste, consistency, and texture of each drink.

The 1st part of the challenge, which occurred on Friday July, 24, was to obtain the ingredients from Haymarket Square in Boston. Students chose and bought their ingredients for the smoothies while walking around the market. When I asked students how they chose their ingredients, many of them reflected on their past experiences with smoothie-making while others spoke about the research they had done on vegetables and fruits before the challenge. Students engaged in lively discussions about ingredients and their cost. One participant of the program, Carla, said “This challenge helped me learn how to compromise with other people as well as how to work with a budget.”

The 2nd part of this challenge was making the smoothies, which happened on Monday July, 27.  Students blended their ingredients here at UMass Boston, and were challenged with finding the best ratio of fruit to vegetable for the perfect flavor. After all of the concocting was over, guest judges then gave their opinions on each team’s smoothies before choosing a winner.

Check back soon for results!