Competitive Eating, Heat Dominate Aberdeen, S.D., Pig Out

Jul. 10–Some members of the public got to pig out in front of the public Saturday as part of eating contests at The Great Aberdeen Pig Out put on by the Aberdeen Downtown Association.

Sophia Chavira of Phoenix, Ariz., took home the championship in the adult custard eating contest that was sponsored by Culver’s. She was visiting family in Aberdeen.

“I tried to mix the custard to get it to melt so it would go down faster,” Chavira said. She won the contest in just over two minutes.

Georgia Smith, executive director of the Aberdeen Downtown Association, said the mid-afternoon heat, which was in the low 90s, was detracting some people from coming down but felt that more would show up at night once it cooled off.

“I’m happy with the crowd that we’ve had so far,” Smith said.

Having eating contests is an added draw this year as Kens SuperFair Foods sponsored a watermelon eating contest and the Aberdeen Radio Ranch sponsored a hotdog-eating contest.

“This is a great free event for the community,” Smith added.

Over 50 volunteers helped make the Pig Out a success.

The big draw though was the food with nine food vendors and the Native American Tea Company. Todd Schaffer of Schaffer’s BBQ was serving up his specialty, pulled pork sandwiches.

“This is our second year doing this event. We’ve run into people at other events that remember our cooking,” Schaffer said.

While he had all family members working at the stand, getting them to volunteer to come work in the heat wasn’t too hard.

“It’s hot everyday,” Schaffer said with a smile.

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