15 Jan 5th Annual MO Mac & Cheese Fest Wrap Up
Big thanks to the restaurants and groups listed here who were part of our 5th Annual MO Mac & Cheese Fest on 1/11/25, we had so much fun! The people and judges voted, and here are the results:
2025 People’s Choice Award: Mama G’s Kitchen
2025 Kids’ Choice Award: Mama G’s Kitchen
Category: Classic Mac
1st Place: Krab Kingz
3rd Place: Houlihan’s North Springfield
Category: Out of the Box
1st Place: Krab Kingz
2nd Place: Liege Love Waffle Co.
3rd Place: Curly Que BBQ
Groups Overall 1st Place: Springfield Trading Co.
Super Gouda Participants: El Cafecito, 417 Taphouse, Bricktown Brewery, Uptown Hog, Pappy’s Place, Q66, Luca Family Restaurant, Pizza Ranch.
Our sincere thanks to Grison Dairy and Creamery, Pepper-Ridge Hot Sauce, Schreiber Foods, and NoBaked Cookie Co. for providing delicious samples; Discovery Center, Battlepack Birthdays, Kids Zone volunteers, and Luce Cannons for bringing the fun and music; to Daniel Orr with Frieze Frame 3D Printing for creation and donation of one-of-a-kind MO Mac & Cheese Fest collectables with proceeds supporting poverty relief; to the numerous volunteers who gave their time to making this event a big success; to our judges – kids and adults – for trying every kind of mac & cheese with a discerning palate; to our photographer, Joanna San Paolo with Snap Shot Photo, who caught many mac & cheesy moments which can be seen here; to our King Chris (Weatherization) and Queen Jordan (Housing), who added a bit of royalty, to our Emcee Extraordinaire, Skylar (CSBG), and to the 750+ guests who joined us for mac & cheese fun!
We also want to acknowledge our sponsors who generously stepped up to support this event and poverty relief in SW MO. Thanks to presenting sponsors, Schreiber Foods and Power 96.5 who have both been invested in this event for years and have been an integral part of its growth and success; to VIP table sponsors, SRC and Guaranty Bank, who provided a great VIP experience for ticket holders; to Crackerjack Shack for design of our 2025 MO Mac & Cheese Fest logo; to Liberty Press for being our printing sponsor; and to Lamar Advertising who helped us reach the masses with donation of digital billboards across SW MO. Over $12,000 was raised for poverty relief, and when in-kind is added, that value exceeds $30,000!
Stay tuned to www.oac.ac/news for announcement of the date and location for the 6th Annual MO Mac & Cheese Fest, coming in January 2026.
