Chili Team Spotlight: Rouse Consulting
It’s officially chili season here at Hand in Hand. We sat down with one of our returning chili teams, Rouse Consulting, to talk about how they got involved with the Chili Cook-Off and how they encourage their employees to get involved.
One of Rouse Consulting’s main pillars of the company is community, and they believe they wouldn’t have the success they have now if it weren’t for their involvement in the community.
In October the company does a company-wide Halloween party which includes an internal chili cook-off where they duke it out to decide who’s got the best chili and whose recipe they’ll be using at Hand in Hand’s Cook-Off. The winner is made the “Executive Chef”, which means they’re in charge of chili cooking, organizing, and they are in charge the day of Hand in Hand’s Chili Cook-Off.
“It gets people excited to ‘boss’ around their boss,” said Mollie Owens, Director of Marketing and Engagement at Rouse Consulting.
The organization has participated in the Chili Cook-Off for the last three years and says their team loves being a part of it and encourages other companies to get involved in the event.
“Just do it! Jump in with both feet, but make sure to have a plan,” Mollie explained.
She says participating in the Cook-Off is always a great team-building experience.
“Chili has so many moving parts, so you have to be in constant communication with the rest of the team. When you all come together to work for it and are successful, it is so exciting,” Mollie exclaimed.
The team has won 8 awards at the Chili Cook-Off since participating. They said the one year they didn’t win was when they decided to go with someone else’s chili instead of Geoff Manis’.
The team is hard at work planning their booth this year and they have a lot of fun things in the works.
Mark your calendars for Saturday, February 7th from 3-6 PM at the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds to see if Rouse picked Geoff’s chili at their Halloween cook-off, what their theme will be, and what shenanigans they’ll be up to the day of the Cook-Off.
For more information on the Chili Cook-Off visit https://www.handinhandqc.org/chili-cook-off