For former MasterChef New Zealand contestant Hayley Bilton, raising awareness about diabetes is a cause close to her heart.
The keen chef's grandmother, who shared her passion for food and cooking, had type 2 diabetes for the last five years of her life and prompted a change in the cooking and eating habits of her family.
Miss Bilton, who moved to Papamoa just over a year ago, will be on the Diabetes Help Tauranga stand at Bayfair Shopping Centre for World Diabetes Day between 3pm and 4pm today, talking to shoppers about helping prevent the disease by eating real food, exercising most days of the week and drinking water.
She is passionate about teaching young people to cook and says it's easy for adults to underestimate children's abilities in the kitchen or the impact creating their own meals can have on their interest in eating good food.
"The kids don't take enough ownership [of what they are eating] themselves. They don't even know half the time about where their food comes from. If you can make children proud about food then they're more inclined to eat those five vege a day," she said.