Eastern Shore native, Travis Walker, lead Phoebus High School’s culinary students into a first place victory for the 2019 NASA Hunch Culinary Challenge.

The competition is a national level event held annually where up to 37 schools have the chance to have their signature entrees sent up to the International Space Station (ISS) for the consumption of astronauts.

Walker, a culinary teacher at Phoebus High School, assisted his winning team in creating an organic harvest hash with butternut squash.

The judges of the competition included industry professionals, members from the ISS program, Johnson Food Lab Personnel, and astronauts for best overall taste. The teams were also judged on their speaking presentations as well as their collective research paper.

Walker’s winning team includes Daysi Hale, Iyana Miller, Amarianna Thomas, Tierra Tucker, Mya Brooks and Wesleigh Gomes. The team’s winning dish can be expected to be processed for space flight between six to nine months.