MILWAUKEE — The PEAK Initiative's annual Winter Family Reunion got a delicious upgrade this year with the addition of a brand-new brunch battle competition, bringing families, staff and program partners together for food, fun and community connection.
"It's really the launch and kick off for our registration season," Erin Fischer, PEAK Initiative executive director, said.
The competition was designed around what PEAK does best — creating opportunities for connection and quality time among participants.
"Everybody likes food, everybody likes to eat," Fischer said.
According to Fischer, PEAK is a year-round program that offers a series of carefully designed activities to cultivate a deep sense of belonging and help youth explore their innate capacity for leadership at all ages.
Beyond the culinary competition, Saturday's event offered multiple ways for families to bond and build community connections.
Watch here: How families got the chance to bond while competing against each other in this weekend's PEAK Initiative brunch battle competition.
"There's an opportunity for families to create cards of gratitude and games. A lot of community gets built over shared laughter through board games," Fischer said.
The event also emphasized supporting local businesses and giving back to the community.
Hanifa Gregory and her son Trulen have been part of the PEAK family for three years and arrived early Saturday morning ready to compete with their fruit pizza creation.
"I think as I was making it this morning it was more of the experience of getting my son out of the bed and involved and helping," Gregory said.
The competition featured strong entries from multiple families, including Fischer herself, who brought an egg bake despite admitting she's not typically comfortable in the kitchen.
"I'm not a huge one in the kitchen but even I put some culinary skills together and brought a really delicious egg bake. It's the one with chicken and sausage, so [note that] as you're voting," Fischer said.
For Gregory, the competition became about more than just winning.
"But now that I'm here my competitive edge is definitely spilling over and I'd like to win," Gregory said.
She found deeper meaning in her fruit pizza creation, seeing it as a representation of the PEAK community itself.
"It's kind of like this pizza is like the representation of the families we see at PEAK. All different colors, from different regions of the country all coming together," Gregory said.
While families sampled brunch items and cast their votes, staff members helped participants get a head start on registration for the upcoming year.
Parent Sinceree Dixon, whose two sons have participated in the program for three years, said her children volunteered in the morning to help prep for the event and are now also ready to become leaders in training with the program.
"Shout out to the staff because they are passionate about uplifting and motivating the youth and the fact that kids start in the program and continue to work with the program speaks volumes. It shows how much they receive and they want to pass that along to the next generation," Dixon said.
Gregory and Trulen's preparation paid off, as they won the sweet category with their fruit pizza. The Zarate family claimed the savory title with their tater tot casserole, which proved to be a fan favorite that disappeared quickly.
Registration for PEAK Initiative programs opens to the public on Monday for families interested in joining the community.
If interested, you can visit their site or you can email register@peakinitiative.org to learn more.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
It’s about time to watch on your time. Stream local news and weather 24/7 by searching for “TMJ4” on your device.
Available for download on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and more.
