Vote for Essence! Healthy breakfast challenge

(FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) - We are in the home stretch of a national cooking contest for kids. It's called the Future Chefs Healthy Breakfast Challenge. It's an interactive program designed to combat childhood obesity and promote healthy eating habits through nutrition education. A local middle school student is one of five national finalists and needs your vote to win. Essence Perry is from Fitchburg.

Perry, a 12-year-old Fitchburg Public Schools middle school student is one of five national finalists in the Sodexo Future Chefs: Healthy Breakfast Challenge, a fun and interactive program designed to combat childhood obesity and promote healthy eating habits through nutrition education.

Perry, winner of the the recent Fitchburg Public Schools district-wide challenge, was selected as one of five finalists from more than 680 participants at 228 schools across the country. She earned the spot thanks to her fun and healthy Monkey Sandwich breakfast recipe, which was evaluated in categories including originality, presentation, ease of preparation, healthy and kid friendly.

Perry created a video of her winning recipe, which will be featured on the Future Chefs YouTube page: www.youtube.com/user/SodexoFutureChefs. The public can view the five finalists' creative and healthy recipes and help select the program's national champion by clicking on a link below each video to go to a voting page. Voting starts on Friday, April 20 and runs through Monday, April 30.

When: Voting is open from Friday, April 20 through Monday, April 30

For more, visit: www.SodexoFoundation.org