Saturday’s Gumbo and Dessert cook-off brought dozens of cooking teams and community members, raising a total of $9,515 to help the city of Picayune fund a match for a grant that will renovate Friendship Park.

About 20 teams submitted either a meat or seafood gumbo and/or a dessert. Twenty-four judges were split out into four teams and provided bowls of gumbo in each category before testing the various desserts submitted for judging.

Winners in each category are as follows: In first place in the seafood gumbo category was Team Drennan, in second place was Team Bud & Lynn and in third place was the Pearl River County Sheriff’s Department.

In the meat gumbo category, a team from the Rowell Correctional Facility took first place while Picayune Fire Department took second place and Team KB Kaufmann took third.

Americlean took first place in the dessert category, followed by Team Drennan in second and Ashlee Thompson in third.

Attendees of the event got a chance to vote on their favorite dish at the event, which was awarded to Americlean.

The funds raised on Saturday will be used to help defer a 20 percent match required in the $1.9 million BP grant that is being used to build a new playground at Friendship Park along with several upgrades to fields and new concession stands at that park.

Prior to this event, the city had raised about $42,000 of the required $380,000 match.