Merry Graham Wins Aetna Healthy Food Fight National Cooking Contest

After a thrilling final cook-off at ABC Studios in Times Square, Aetna (NYSE: AET) announced Merry Graham as the winner of The Aetna Healthy Food Fight. Graham’s winning dish of Black Bean and Sweet Potato Porridge with Jicama Pico de Gallo helped her win the grand prize of $10,000 worth of groceries from Recipe.com.

“I am truly honored to win The Aetna Healthy Food Fight,” said Graham. “From beginning this contest by submitting my recipe to cooking for Bobby Flay in the finale, I have had an amazing experience.”

While Graham was crowned as the winner of The Aetna Healthy Food Fight contest, Mary Edwards was recognized as the ‘fan favorite.” Edwards received more than 6,800 votes through The Healthy Food Fight website, and as a result, will be able to donate $10,000 to the nonprofit organization GrowingGreat.

“While it would have been great to win the overall contest, I am thrilled to be named the fan favorite,” said Edwards. “This donation can have a huge impact on GrowingGreat as they emphasize the importance of healthy cooking and eating.”

"We are so grateful for Aetna, Mary Edwards and the thousands of fans that made this grant possible," said Sarah Gelb, GrowingGreat Executive Director. "This grant will go a long way, inspiring more kids to adopt healthy eating habits through GrowingGreat's innovative parent-led classroom nutrition and school garden programs, empowering the next generation to live longer and healthier lives."

About Aetna

Aetna is one of the nation’s leading diversified health care benefits companies, serving approximately 36.3 million people with information and resources to help them make better informed decisions about their health care. Aetna offers a broad range of traditional, voluntary and consumer-directed health insurance products and related services, including medical, pharmacy, dental, behavioral health, group life and disability plans, and medical management capabilities and health care management services for Medicaid plans. Our customers include employer groups, individuals, college students, part-time and hourly workers, health plans, governmental units, government-sponsored plans, labor groups and expatriates. For more information, see www.aetna.com.