FLEMING ISLAND – If there’s one thing first responders and veterans know, it’s how to make chili. But who makes the best? Cops? Firefighters? EMTs? Emergency Management? Former soldiers?

What makes a good chili? Should it be spicy? What about beans? Are there secret ingredients – folks in Cincinnati add chocolate – that make a difference?

Sunday’s chili cookoff at Whitey’s Fish Camp will help provide some answers – all while helping a local boy, Shane, who is battling leukemia.

The Clay County Sheriff’s Office, Fire Rescue, Emergency Management, Schools District and the Schools District, Green Cove Springs and Orange Park police departments to join with Waymaker GIs and Operation Barnabas to support the fundraiser.

The first bowl will be filled at 2 p.m. and the taste fest won’t end until 4 p.m., and it costs $10 to be one of the lucky tasters.

The agencies involved, however, lit a fire in the competition long before the first burner was turned on.

“Firefighters know food and we definitely know a thing or two about heat!,” said acting Fire/Rescue Chief David E. Motes. “Clay County Department of Public Safety looks forward to squaring off against the competition and especially so with our Law Enforcement brothers and sisters.”

Green Cove will send three different entries, according to chief John Guzman.

“I won’t have one,” he said. “Nobody would want to eat my chili.”

Raylan Heck is the lead officer for Operation Barnabas. That group is dedicated to providing homeless veterans and their families with housing and food, while helping to prevent suicide and providing spiritual encouragement.

“Operation Barnabas is a Charity that helps veterans,” Heck said. “The root word for Charity is Love. We are gonna win the Chili Cookoff because we are gonna make our chili with Love. Plus the Secret is it’s my Grandmothers recipe, so there is that.”

Clay County District School Police aren’t backing down, either.

“We are going to win because we have a team member bringing his Buffalo, New York, recipe that is out of this world,” Chief Kenneth Wagner said. “The secret, it’s made with grit and love for our Clay County Students.

“(Our) team, ‘Not So Silent Night Chili Cooking Team’ is putting our best to the test.”

The Division of Emergency Management is used to responding to disasters, so there are times when a good bowl of chili becomes their lifeblood.

“Emergency Managers are tasked daily with pulling calm out of crisis – making order out of chaos – but as (philosopher Friedrich) Nietzsche was credited to have said, ‘Gazing into the eyes of the beast, one should be careful not to become the beast.’ Who better than EM to release the ‘beast’ in the spirit of our White Chicken Chili?” said deputy director Mike Ladd.

“Additionally, our world-famous (OK, pretty famous in our house) chili will be prepared and served by Team America EM – an all-star team that has a childhood cancer survivor (three years post-treatment) on board that truly understands how important this event is. While winning is probably a given based on the incredibly tasty and high quality of our chili, being part of this incredible Community effort to help Shane and his family in this fight is clearly job number one!”

Despite being the smallest law enforcement agency in the county, the Orange Park Police Department is happy to stand toe-to-toe when any agency when it comes to chili.

“OPPD’s Nicest whip up the Meanest chili,” said Lt. Cody Monroe. “The ‘OPPD’ proprietary blend chili is sure to be having judges asking for more and may just raise the most money for Shane!”