Food Nutrition Event Series 2017
The Advantages of Nutritional Food Consumption for Young and Elderly Generation in Indonesia
Food Nutrition Event Series 2017 is an annual project held by fourth semester students of Food Technology study program of Swiss German University (SGU). Besides as a main program from Food Nutrition Class, this event series is also a form of SGU community service activity. The students attempt to increase people’s awareness of nutrition from toddlers to the elderly through five series of activities concerning nutrition and health which, this year, was executed for about a week from June 9 until June 17, 2017.
Currently, there are many people who still lack of information about the importance of nutrition intake. For instance, they do not eat enough fruit or pure meat and have bad eating habits. They are often not aware about the importance of oral health, and sometimes need more knowledge about the right amount of nutrition for elders. For that reason, SGU Food Technology students conducted some fun activities to help and support kids, parents, and senior citizens around South Tangerang area to get more knowledge on nutrition intake.
One of the helpful ways to help people become aware of nutrition, as in orphanages and nursing homes, took place at Yayasan Pintu Elok to understand that lack of nutrition from fruit, meat, and milk was not good. Student held an Educational Seminar about “Healthy Food Consumption”, a cooking demonstration, and a gardening activity for 67 people consisting of orphans and homeless children. Another team focused on educating parents of 3-5 year old children at PAUD Seruni IX through a presentation about basic theory of nutrition for such children and the reason why instant food are unhealthy. Without considering basic theory of nutrition, it would be bad eating habits for both children and parents.
Moreover, to support senior citizens who were also the concern of this event series, they helped the caretakers to gain more knowledge about nutrition at Pondok Lansia Berdikari. Through this activity, the caretakers obtained much information about the right amount of nutrition for elders that they should give, the knowledge of health check, and improved the food palatability without adding excessive flavor.
Another concern is to share knowledge to young adults who have poor dietary patterns. The team organized a professional seminar to educate how important it is to eat healthy food and how it can affect people’s future which was held at the SGU campus, delivered by by dr. Nanny Djaja Ms. Sp. GK, a food nutritionist expert.
Finally, the last activity for this event series was “MUSE” project organized at Desa Ciater, Serpong. “MUSE” stands for “Mulut Sehat” which means Healthy Mouth. The project is aimed to improve the community awareness on the importance of oral health through nutritional intake by conducting a seminar, giving educative games for children, and a cooking demo. Through this activity, parents also received MUSE Package which contained a cooking menu booklet of oral health for parents and a fun measuring plate for daily nutritional intake to fulfill oral health requirements.
By conducting these fun community service activities through Food Nutrition event series, SGU hopes that elders, parents, children, and caregiving received new knowledge in the field of nutrition and health. All this is in the hope that they could improve their daily habits to become healthier than before.
