We're looking for keen young cooks aged 12-14 to enter Create & Cook from home. The challenge is to create a menu using local ingredients. Thanks to Your Co-op for supporting us as we help secondary schools with their online learning. Enter here: bit.ly/372KRaL

Farmers markets are still running in lockdown & they are a great place for young cooks entering our competition to find their local ingredients. Head over to @HantsFarmersMkt, TVFM & @Stroudfarmermkt. Young cooks can enter Create & Cook 2021 from home: bit.ly/372KRaL

Thanks to Natures Way Foods for supporting us in the South as we help secondary schools run our competition as part of their online learning. Young cooks aged 12-14 yrs old can enter our competition from home. Find out more bit.ly/372KRaL

We're helping #foodtech teachers with their online learning. To find our worksheets which includes task 5 of our competition - think globally, source locally - please see our website: bit.ly/cc-2021

Lovely to be thinking of summer right now. We're asking young cooks to create a mood board of summer memories to help them choose their recipes. Closing date 26th March. Enter here: bit.ly/cc-2021

Our competition asks for summer-themed recipes using local ingredients. We do hope to hold a final cook-off in the summer! Find out how to enter form home: bit.ly/cc-2021

To give schools more time to complete their entries, we are extending the deadline for entries to the 2021 Create & Cook Competition to Friday 14th May.   Please see our news page for more info bit.ly/3l45glv

Task 8 of the Create & Cook Challenges is to write up your menu and recipes. We encourage young cooks to write out recipes in their own words not cut & paste. The judges would love to see young cooks think about the process and adapt recipes to suit their own style.

Our recycling system can't cope with all the throwaway plastic companies are churning out. It's time to do something about it. Tell supermarkets to cut their plastic packaging now > act.gp/3rYAc9l 4/4

Task 9 for the young cooks entering our competition is to tell us the story behind their menu. This helps the judges understand the thinking behind the ideas. Please note extended deadline, to give schools more time after Easter, Friday 14th May.

Closing date for our 2021 Create & Cook Competition is next Friday.  Can’t wait to see all the locally inspired menus created by keen young cooks aged 12-14 yr olds. Always a pleasure to judge menus focused on local ingredients. Who will be our 2021 Champions?

Huge news guys! Today the Government announced they will end junk food marketing online. Thank you to all our supporters who fought hard for this. And thank you Boris Johnson for your commitment to remove junk food from the spotlight and set the stage globally for child health.

Thanks for all your brilliant entries young cooks - this lovely colourful smoked trout salad from Liam and Joe at Brookfield Community College, Hants #localfood #busyjudging

Announcing our talented young winners from #Gloucestershire #Shropshire #Oxfordshire #Hampshire abs #Sussex - look forward to meeting these great cooks at our finals - big well done to you all! bit.ly/3v6V5jk

In case you weren't feeling the need for a mid-afternoon snack, here are the utterly gorgeous dishes created by our Create & Cook Comp regional winners, Y9s Poppy and Alina - with a finishing touch of sunshine... SHSK Middle School

Big congrats to Poppy and Alina for winning our 2021 Midcounties final sponsored by Your Co-op. Stunning @nortonandyarrow goats cheese & spinach ravioli and homegrown rhubarb and raspberry crumble with creme anglaise Cotteswold Dairy milk. Worthy winners - well done girls.

Poppy and Alina St Helen and St Katharine our Midcounties champions Your Co-op championing their local & homegrown ingredients used in their winning dishes - stunning food with few #foodmiles helping #ClimateAction and #Sustainability

'This teaching method has been shown to increase children's willingness to try fruits and vegetables', says the new National Food Strategy report. It's great to see recognition at last for sensory food education (taste education), which is already a universal part of education in Finland

Well done Poppy and Tommy from Fernhill School, Farnborough for winning our Natures Way Foods Southern final with their lovely #IsleofWight crab fritters & Newlyns Farmshop pork medley. Thanks National Food Strategy today for urging schools to take food as seriously as Maths & English.

Create & Cook is taking a break for 2022 to allow schools to get back to normal. But we hope the good work around #localfood and #Climatechange will continue in the classroom bit.ly/3C5RciV