MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- Station residents reaped havoc on all five basic food groups during a Food Factor competition at Triangle Park and inside the Commissary here May 31.
The event, which was sponsored by the Single Marine Program and Defense Commissary Agency, celebrates Commissary Awareness Month. Free food and drinks were available for all guests. Contestants were entered into a raffle for cash and bicycles donated by representatives of Cadbury Schweppes. Winners in each of the events were given more tickets for the raffle, increasing their odds of winning.
“It took us a couple of days to get ready for the games, but we’re looking forward to seeing the look on their (contestants) faces,” said Tammi Furman, assistant grocery manager and native of Chicago.
The competition consisted of six events. Competitors tossed raw eggs back and forth, put their arm’s strength to the test during a frozen pizza discus throw, scrunched their faces as they peeled grapefruits with their teeth for shot-put and shivered to put on a frozen shirt faster than the rest. However, none of those events compared to the pie-eating contest, which factored in more fear than appetite.
“I was trying to gross them out,” said Furman. “I tried to find items with different tastes and textures then decorate the pie to make it look all pretty. We were going for the element of surprise.”
Competitors gagged in disgust as they hesitantly shoved their faces into a pie filled with an odd mix of jalapenos, nuts, pinto beans, peas, shrimp paste, coconut and chocolate. Their goal was to find an almond in the foul abyss.
“That pie was nasty and I don’t even know if you could call it that (a pie),” said Cpl. Steven D. Guess, Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron legal assistance chief and native of Miami. “I’d only eat a whole one again for $100.”
Food was then served not thrown, shoveled or played with as competitors took a break and sat down for a dinner of hamburgers, hot dogs and appetizers, provided by commissary personnel.
The competition continued after the break with a final event. Competitors gathered in the rear of the commissary as Furman explained the final event of finding an item priced at $1.60. Within an instant, they dispersed throughout the aisles like businessmen during rush-hour to find the item.
Only two competitors found the mystery item, Guess and Sgt. Christopher L. Myers, H&HS flight planning non-commissioned officer-in-charge and native of Galveston, Texas, stumbled over each other, racing with the prized item. Finally, while breathing heavily, an excited Guess held up the prized bologna package.
Guess and Myers each took home a bicycle during the raffle.
“It’s not everyday we get to have a food fight. It’s funny how something that looked so easy turned out to be so hard,” said Guess.