FARMINGTON – Healthy Community Coalition will sponsor the third annual Veggie Madness Restaurant Contest during Moonlight Madness on Friday, July 29, on Broadway. Judges will sample the entries from 3 to 3:30 p.m. Once the judges try each entry, the public will be invited to sample the dishes and offer their comments.

Local restaurants are being asked to submit entries in one of three categories: a healthy vegetarian entree, a vegetarian soup, or a sandwich, pizza or salad. Restaurants are also being asked to include local vegetables in their entries.

Last year’s first-place winners were the Granary Brew Pub and Restaurant and Soup For You! Cafe.

This year’s judges will include Buzz Davis, local community member, Roz Kerr, member of the Nutrition Task Force, Dr. Dora Ann Mills, director of the state Bureau of Health and a Farmington native, and Sen. Chandler Woodcock.

To ensure that the entries are healthy as well as tasty, the restaurants have been given guidelines based on recommendations from the American Heart Association and the American Dietetic Association. Some of the guidelines include having a half cup of a vegetable a serving and being reasonably low in fat and salt. Entries will be judged on these guidelines, plus being flavorful and eye appealing.

The goal is to promote increased consumption of vegetables and fruits by residents. In Franklin County, 72 percent of adults don’t consume the recommended five servings of vegetables and fruits a day.

The public is welcome to sample the entries at about 3:30 p.m. at Veggie Madness at HCC’s Mobile Health Unit, located at the corner of High Street and Broadway. Also featured at the unit from 1 to 5 p.m. will be blood pressure checks and low-cost bike helmets for kids.

For more information, call HCC at 645-3136 or toll free at 1-800-525-3136.