NASA selected the recipe from the university’s Columbiana campus Rising Scholar Program as a part of its NASA HUNCH program. Jose Garcia, a junior at East Liverpool High School, was the recipient selected for this project-based learning program, which allows high school students to create products for NASA.

Jessica Paull, program coordinator of the university’s Columbiana Rising Scholars Program, said Brienna Scott, the graduate assistant of the program, informed her of the after-school culinary competition centered on creating a new dish for NASA astronauts.

This year, Paull said the Rising Scholars Program chose to compete in the culinary program, as several students expressed interest in it. 

The preliminary finals of the culinary competition included 33 schools creating their own dishes judged by 10 local chefs. From the preliminary finals, the 10 schools with the highest scores will advance to compete in Houston and will be judged by NASA representatives in February, Paull said.

“We’re working on a recipe that will be space-ready,” Paull said. “Something that will be created for… a meal that will be created for astronauts by the Johnson Space [Center] Label in Houston.”

Previously the Rising Scholars Program, a mentorship and post-secondary success program working with students in grades seven through 12 from low-income families, has made soft hygiene kits as part of the NASA HUNCH program, with 18 of those kits going to space, Paull said.

“I thought that’s really cool, that’s something those students just have,” Paull said.” Not only can they say on their resume, ‘Oh, I’ve worked with NASA,’ but they can always know they’ve sent something to space.”

Unlike the soft hygiene kits, the culinary program is a competition. For the next round, which Garcia will be practicing in, only 10 of those 33 recipes will be selected to be sent to space for astronauts to enjoy, Paull said. 

For the meals to meet the nutritional needs of astronauts they must be from 170 to about 300 calories and could only contain limited amounts of sodium and fat, Garcia said.

To stay within those requirements while also creating a creative breakfast recipe, Garcia said he enlisted the help of his friend Miles Reynolds, a freshman at East Liverpool High School. 

Garcia said they noticed a majority of the astronauts’ meals consisted of pork, which prompted him to want to create a different recipe containing seafood.

He created a shrimp rice ball recipe containing halibut fish and an optional slice of avocado to place on top of the dish, Garcia said.

“How nice would it be if they had something more fresh, a little more green,” Garcia said.

After deciding on the recipe, one of the challenges that emerged during the creation process was determining a portion size, Garcia said.

He said another challenge was ensuring the rice balls would be able to stick together as students were advised by NASA to avoid any food which creates crumbs.

“With how I wanted to do rice balls, you kind of need something to glue the rice together and keep stuff inside,” Garcia said. “I chose some stuff that would mush together and be like bonding glue.”

Some of Garcia’s favorite parts about taking on this challenge were researching and trying new foods like the halibut fish, he said.

“I love researching new foods that I’ve never really seen or really tried,” Garcia said. “I really like tilapia and this [halibut is] better than tilapia so I better just use this one.”

Garcia said one of his takeaways from the involvement in the competition and creating the recipe was the ability to put things into perspective.

“I was telling my buddy Miles… ‘I really like that my recipe got chosen but the thing that I’m freaking out about is it’s chosen by the following words, by NASA,’” Garcia said.

Paull said she is very proud of the Rising Scholars Program’s students and Garcia for his accomplishment.

“These students are just the best and I love them and I’m very proud of them,” Paull said. “I’m very proud of [Garcia] too, and… he’s a wonderful, wonderful student and I see really great things for him.”

Adriana Gasiewski is a staff reporter. Contact her at [email protected].