Golding Homes is backing the county’s official school cookery contest to boost kids’ confidence and creativity in the kitchen.

The housing organisation is supporting KM Kent Cooks, which is organised by the KM Charity Team, as part of its drive to promote healthier lifestyles to residents.

Community development advisor Sarah-Jane Leipnik said: “We understand that a healthy balanced diet for our children is a big step towards wellbeing. Encouraging children, young people and families to get into the kitchen to create and cook healthy meals gives young people a fantastic lesson in preparing nutritious food.

“This is a great project which we are proud to support!”

Youngsters aged five to 18 years enter Kent Cooks by preparing a dish they consider to be healthy and uploading a photograph of the food along with recipe details to the www.kentcooks.co.uk website.

Julia Williamson of Kent Cooks said: “The aim of the competition is to equip students with the desire to eat more healthily and the knowledge of how to achieve it.”

She added: “This year we’ve introduced a fantastic cash prize so the winners will receive a goody bag, a Masterchef cook book and a share of £500.”

Finalists from the primary, secondary and family categories will be invited to attend the live cook-off on Thursday, November 27 when category winners and the overall KM Kent Cooks champion will be announced.

Kent Cooks is also supported by Countrystyle, Mini Babybel, Three R’s Teacher Recruitment, DFDS Seaways, Southern Water, Kent Cookery School, Orbit, Brakes, Carefree Communications, VooServers and Licensing Consultancy Services.

The closing date for entries is Tuesday, November 4. Find out more at www.kentcooks.co.uk.