How many paczki can be eaten in 3 minutes? Quality Dairy debuts inaugural contest
LANSING — In three minutes, four people gobbled almost a dozen paczki for charity.
In the end, Akiem Harshman’s four consumed paczki earned a $1,000 donation to go toward outreach programs at Judson Baptist Church, where he and his family have attended for generations.
He said he prepped by fasting since Thursday and walking his dog, Chewbacca, a few miles.
Quality Dairy's inaugural paczki-eating contest happened Friday at the company's headquarters and served as the kickoff for a two-week paczki-selling season.
Paczki are traditional Polish-style pastries enjoyed especially on Fat Tuesday, which is Feb. 13.
The contestants faced a 3-minute clock and a stack of more than a dozen paczki, with fillings ranging from chocolate to a new upside down pineapple cake flavoring to a gum-smacking peanut butter. The contestants started with a single lemon paczek on top of the stack of paczki and went from there.
Quality Dairy started selling paczki in the Lansing area in 1988, using a recipe from a Hamtramck bakery, said Phil Platte, marketing director for the company.
He said they sell thousands and thousands of the treats each year with raspberry being the biggest seller.
Other major Lansing sellers include Groovy Donuts and Meijer.
Friday's other three contestants - Holly Mulligan for the City Rescue of Lansing, Jordan Weber for the Michigan Business Professionals of America and Scott Lorms for Saved by Zade - each earned smaller donations for their charities.
Contact Mike Ellis at mellis@lsj.com or 517-267-0415
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Lansing church a winner in Quality Dairy inaugural packzki-eating contest
