When you think Uncle Ben’s rice, here are some thoughts that don’t usually follow: Hawaii food, Chinese food, photo contest or $45,000. But the Ben’s Beginners contest brought together all of that for 6-year-old Cinnamon Lee, whose picture of herself and her family cooking fried rice (made from Uncle Ben’s, of course) reaped the big money.

Cinnamon’s win also means a lot for her school, Benjamin Parker Elementary in Kaneohe — $30,000 of the prize is designated for a “cafeteria makeover.” The rest goes to the Lees.

“Fried rice is my favorite food. I like it because it’s yummy,” she said, adding that she regularly helps her dad, John, with cooking the family meals. “I mix the food.”

Cinnamon’s mom, Trisha, is a fourth-grade resource teacher at Ben Parker and organizer of a fledgling parent-teacher group there. She saw the Uncle Ben’s contest in a weekly national newsletter for parent-teacher organizations.

“It was a photo contest, and you could upload a picture daily. All you had to do was take a picture of your family cooking rice. The contest promotes families cooking together,” she said. Cinnamon was one of five winners.

It was so easy, the Lees submitted various pictures, among them the family (which also includes Cinnamon’s sister, Cassia, age 4) making Spam musubi and cooking a simple fried rice.

But it was after talking about the contest to friends in China that they came up with their winning picture, of a fancier fried rice garnished with shrimp and cooked with pieces of pineapple, served in a hollowed-out pineapple shell.

“That’s what they do in China. They use pineapple in fried rice and use the pineapple for a bowl,” Trisha said. She said the loose consistency of the instant rice was a perfect fit for the authenticity of the dish, since the Chinese dry out their rice to make fried rice.

The dish was a bonus for Cinnamon, who got a taste of her former homeland. The youngster spent the first four years of her life in China, where her parents were missionaries and English teachers for 10 years.

With their $15,000 prize, the Lees will make donations to their church and Ben Parker’s parent-teacher group. The rest will go toward Cinnamon’s college fund.

As for Ben Parker, vice principal Elissa Johnson said the school hopes to cross items off a cafeteria wish list: a gas grill, wok, fans and an updated sound system, as school and community gatherings are held there.

But beyond the prize money, said Trisha, the biggest upside of the contest was that it brought the school together.

“People got involved,” she said. After the top 25 images were selected, there was a three-week voting period, during which faculty got their families to vote, kids’ parents and grandparents voted, and sixth-graders voted daily in the classroom as part of their routine.

“I knew if we won, it would be a morale booster for the school,” she said. “Now, more than 100 parents are volunteering. Good things are happening at the school.”

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Cinnamon’s Fried Rice

• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil, divided
• 1/2 cup EACH chopped onions and chopped carrots
• 1/2 cup peas
• 1/2 cup pineapple, diced
• 1/2 cup chopped hot dog (or other precooked meat such as ham)
• 2 cups cooked rice or 1 package cooked Uncle Ben’s Boil-in-Bag Whole Grain Brown Rice
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1/2 pineapple, cut lengthwise, with fruit removed
• 1/4 cup shrimp

Add 1 teaspoon oil to heated wok. Saute onions and carrots. Add peas, pineapple and meat, and cook 1 minute. Add rice and seasonings. Pour fried rice into hollowed-out pineapple half. Add remaining oil and shrimp to wok. Cook and add salt to taste. Top rice with shrimp. Serves 3 to 4.

Approximate nutritional information per serving: 330 calories, 4.5 g fat, 0.5 g saturated fat, 40 mg cholesterol, 500 mg sodium, 64 g carbohydrate, 5 g fiber, 18 g sugar, 10 g protein