Chili Cook-off Brings Flavor and Fun to Support Local Impact
The 26th Annual United Way Chili Cook-off took place Tuesday, October 7th at Broadway Ballroom in Alexandria. This year's event carried a board game theme in celebration of United Way Lakes and Prairie’s campaign message: United Is The Way We Win for ALICE. 18 teams joined in the fun, crafting themed displays, dressing up in creative costumes, volunteering their time, and serving delicious chili to those in attendance. More than 250 community members showed up to taste the entries and cast their votes for the People’s Choice chili winner.
The competition was fierce and flavorful. Our 2025 panel of judges sampled all entries and scored each chili based on taste, presentation, and creativity. Judges represented the following sponsoring organizations: Seth Kellen of Massman, Emily Geris of Vivie, Aaron Adickes of Alomere, Eric Halverson of Broadway Ballroom, Lucas Sieh of Aagard, and Jarrod Kempa of Cub Foods. Thank you to each of these individuals for taking part and to their companies for supporting the event.
A special thank-you to our event sponsors for making this day possible: Aagard, Alomere, American Solutions for Business, Cub Foods, Massman Companies, and Vivie. We are also grateful to Broadway Ballroom for hosting and to the Dairy Association for providing ice cream.
23 students from the Alexandria Area High School’s Students United group volunteered at this year’s event. They served ice cream, soda, and chili, assisted the judges, hosted our United Way information table, and served as judges for the booth display awards. We thank them for their energy, creativity, and commitment to giving back.
We are also grateful to our dedicated volunteers who helped make the event possible, including the Retire United team who cooked and served chili, and the Alexandria Kiwanis Club, who supported United Way as our welcome team and event volunteers.
The 2025 award winners are:
Best Booth: First Western Bank
Hottest Chili: Gardonville
Most Unique Chili: Aagard
Judge's Choice: Aagard
People’s Choice: Aagard
This annual fundraiser supports United Way programming and initiatives focused on four key impact areas: Youth Opportunity, Financial Stability, Healthy Communities, and Community Resiliency. Thank you to everyone who attended and helped make this year’s cook-off a success!
