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Food rescue organization launches app to reduce food waste in Lethbridge

LETHBRIDGE –

A food rescue organization is hoping to reduce the amount of food being thrown out in Lethbridge.

The Leftovers Foundation rescues food from grocery stores, hotels and restaurants, directing it to service agencies in the community.

“So, Leftovers rescues food that would otherwise be thrown away and we get it just in time to redirect it to some of our vulnerable neighbors,” said Katarina Meyer, the foundation’s co-ordinator for Lethbridge.

Food donors can log onto the Rescue Food app to say what food they have.

Service agencies can then choose what items to take and volunteer drivers are assigned to pick up and deliver the food at no cost.

“We’re hoping to really meet the needs of donors and service agencies by taking the stress off of them and doing that work for them,” Meyer said.

The foundation helps keep fresh food out of the garbage and delivers it to those who are in need of assistance.

“They’ve connected with the existing programs here, so we don’t see it as a duplication, but as an actual help in maximizing the resources that are available in our community,” said Danielle McIntyre, executive director of the Interfaith Food Bank .

The Leftovers Foundation rescues food from grocery stores, hotels and restaurants, directing it to service agencies in the community.

The foundation currently operates in Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg, with Lethbridge and Red Deer recently being added to the list.

The foundation was able to rescue more than 500,000 pounds of food in 2022, according to Meyer.

With rising inflation and a record number of people using food banks in Alberta, McIntyre says the more help they can get, the better.

“We’re seeing about a 42 per cent increase over this time last year and our numbers keep going up,” McIntyre said.

“Whereas we usually do see them come down in the summertime, so we are concerned that we aren’t going to be able to meet the need through the summer and then for the rest of the year as well, so any little bit of us can get, we are grateful for.”

Meyer says the foundation’s mission is to reduce food waste and prevent greenhouse gas emissions.

“Rescuing food helps not only put good food in the hands of those who need it the most, but it also helps our environment by reducing CO2 emissions and keeping that food out of the landfills,” Meyer added.

Meyer hopes to get more businesses and restaurants to take part in the program and use the app.

People interested in rescuing or donating food can contact Meyer at [email protected] or visit https://rescuefood.ca/.

Edmonton’s Food Bank opens third warehouse and programming facility

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As thousands of Edmontonians reach out to Edmonton’s Food Bank due to the rising cost of living, the organization has opened a third warehouse and programming facility to help meet demand.

In May, more than 35,600 people were served by the food bank’s hamper program, a 14 per cent increase compared to May 2022. Between January and May this year, there has been an average increase in clients of 26 per cent.

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The organization celebrated the opening of the new warehouse, located at 11448 120 St., on Wednesday. But it is a bittersweet celebration, said executive director Marjorie Bencz.

“It is always bittersweet when food banks have to expand their programs because it means that the organization can respond and that donors have been very gracious and kind as well,” she said. “But it is sad when we see increased numbers of people needing our food services.”

During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the food bank had been serving about 17,000 people per month through the hamper program. Now it is serving between 30,000 and 35,000 people per month.

“Plus we have more schools and community groups coming to us for food each month,” Bencz said. “We really need to rethink how we can do our best to meet the needs of the community. We know we probably can’t meet all the needs, but how can we just step it up a little bit more and do a little bit more.”

The new facility has been named Niso, a Cree word meaning “two” because the warehouse is situated between the food bank’s two existing buildings. The organization was able to purchase the warehouse thanks to a mortgage from the Muttart Foundation.

The food bank will be able to offer unique programming out of the building, including hamper distribution.

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“We have the capacity to deal with about 50 families 10 times a week,” Bencz said. “So that’s 500 families that we can do almost distribution with. And those families would be calling into our call center, being pre-approved, and the almost would be ready for them for pickup.

Over the next few weeks, the food bank will be rolling out another section of the building for a pantry program where people will be able to come and pick the items they need.

“Obviously we can’t bring 35,000 people through this space,” Bencz said. “But we will use this as another response to the increasing food insecurity in our community.”

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Lima’s Central restaurant named world’s best in boost for Peruvian cuisine | peruvian

While Peru’s archeological heritage began in the 20th century to attract millions of tourists to locations such as Machu Picchu and the Nazca Lines, the country’s cuisine remained one of South America’s best-kept secrets.

But in the last two decades, Peru’s food – a product of its rich range of crops, ecosystems and a particular history – has become a global brand, with restaurants opening in cities from San Francisco to Sydney.

Now, after years of plaudits and prizes, Central restaurant in Lima has been voted the world’s best, crowning the global conquest of Peruvian cuisine.

It is the first South American restaurant to win the title, and three other Lima restaurants were in the top 50, meaning the Peruvian capital took more slots than any other city.

Central’s fine dining menu showcases Peru’s unique spread of biodiversity by taking diners through “15 different Peruvian ecosystems, categorized by altitude – from 15 meters under the Pacific Ocean to 4,200 meters up in the Andes,” according to World’s 50 Best Restaurants.

“It’s not about being number one, it’s not about being the best, it’s about what we do every single day. We love what we do,” said the restaurant’s co-founder and head chef, Virgilio Martínez, who accepted the award in the Spanish city of Valencia last week.

His wife and Central’s co-founder, Pía Léon, saw her solo project Kjolle reach the top 50 this year, making 28th place. The two other Lima eateries on the list were Maido, led by the award-winning Japanese-Peruvian chef Mitsuharu “Micha” Tsumura, at number six, and Mayta in 47th.

The second-floor dining area and wine cellar at Central restaurant in Lima in 2013
The second-floor dining area and wine cellar at Central restaurant in Lima in 2013. Photo: Cris Bouroncle/AFP/Getty Images

Fusion is key to Peru’s cuisine. Over centuries, techniques were brought by waves of incomers – from Spanish invaders to enslaved Africans to indentured Cantonese, as well as Italian, Japanese, and Arabic immigrants – built on a rich foundation of Indigenous food and crops. From the high altitudes of the Andes to the fish-rich Pacific and the Amazonian rainforest, all helped to create uniquely Peruvian cuisines including comida criollaJapanese-Peruvian Nikkei, and Chifa, Chinese-Peruvian fare.

“That’s the fun part of Peru, we don’t reject other cultures,” Tsumura told the Guardian in a recent interview. “We embrace them and we think how to make them much more tasty, or, I would say, we look at how we can apply those flavours, techniques and ingredients to our cuisine.

“That’s what makes us free with Peruvian cuisine and inclusive – not just with food but with music, with art and with many other elements of society. You can see how many countries have built our culture in a very diverse way.”

Born in Peru to a family with roots in Osaka, Tsumura trained as a sushi chef in Japan before returning to Lima and founding Maido with his own brand of Nikkei cuisine. “An explosion of flavors in your mouth” is how he sums up his restaurant’s culinary experience. “We’re always looking for very intense sensations.”

Tsumura’s flair and Martínez’s honed precision rely on Peru’s rich array of ingredients. First among them, the humble potato. Just a handful of Peru’s 4,000-plus varieties of potato have fed the hungry everywhere from the Americas to Eurasia. Maize has grown in what is now Peru for six millennia; historians believe it was brought from Central America. The tomato, the basis for Italian cuisine, originated in the country’s Andean valleys.

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“I think all countries have something unique which is theirs,” León said. “In our case, it’s the confidence and security we have with our food.”

One of very few female chefs in the new generation pushing Peru’s gastronomic boom, Léon knew from a young age that creating in the kitchen was her future. Kjolle, which sits in the same airy building as Central in Lima’s bohemian Barranco neighborhood, is a “more intuitive concept which doesn’t concentrate on the altitude, rather on the product, which allows us to be a little freer,” she said.

Ignacio Medina, a Spanish-Peruvian food critic based in Lima, said the restaurants’ recognition was crucial for Peru as it was facing tough regional competition in the food stakes from Mexico and Argentina. Even so, Peruvian restaurants have been a fixture in the top 50 list for close to a decade.

“Now Peruvian cuisine can become a world trend again,” Medina said. “With this, it regains leadership and re-emerges as a reference point.”

Tsumura believes the enthusiasm Peruvians share for their national cuisine is what unifies and defines them, in a country where gaping racial and class divisions were laid bare by deadly state repression of anti-government protests earlier this year.

“Peruvian cuisine has always been good, the only problem was actually that we didn’t believe it. It’s as simple as that,” Tsumura said.

Creative Food Photography Inspiration: Peden + Munk

NY-based photographer/director duo Taylor Peden and Jen Munkvold – otherwise known as Peden + Munk – shoot an visually appealing blend of food and lifestyle photography that sets itself well apart from the monotonous pre-set mediocrity of so much self-aware creative food photography.

Creative food photography by photographers Peden and Munk

Strong composition, a great sense of color, appropriate lighting, and tasty, wholesome food: the ingredients that make up genuinely creative food photography are surprisingly simple

While many middling photographers go for the lazy saccharine highs and diabetes-inducing close-ups of the mainstream culinary fair, Peden + Munk instead concentrates on food made as nature intended it: simple ingredients skillfully combined. The food is earthy, rustic and real; and comes served on plates to match. These are dishes that are genuinely appetizing, without resorting to the lazy pop-appeal of a cheap sugar rush or mainline grease-injection.

The above is of course largely a question of food styling, and for all we know may be more down to the caliber of commissions the duo receives rather than testimony to their own talent for artistic direction. Yet there’s a similarly wholesome simplicity evident on the photographic side of things too. Indeed, while invariably stylish, well-framed, and demonstrating an excellent awareness of color, this is genuinely creative food photography that derives much of it’s strength from nothing more complicated than the flattering depiction of life’s simpler pleasures.

Example of awesome creative food photography by Peden + Munk

Good food, simply prepared

In fact, if food photography could ever be described as deadpan, then this is probably it. While always stimulating to look at, the pair reject both the kitsch-romanticism and heavy-handed retouching techniques employed in so much food photography, approaching their subjects in a manner that could almost be described as phenomenological: the-food-in-itself.

Despite – or perhaps precisely because of – this, their photographs frequently transmit flashes of taste, touch, and even temperature to the well-tuned viewer. Indeed their work clearly demonstrates that the pair possess an evolved sensibility to the tactile and sensorial. This sensibility also extends to their use of light: whether it be intense sunshine or, more frequently, the diffused and indirect light of leafy shade, Peden+ Munk’s photographs are always nicely-lit.

An example of Peden and Munk's creative food photography

Peden + Munk excel at creating alluring visual narratives

The duo also have a good eye for creating striking visual juxtapositions, combining images of food in various stages of preparation with coincidental and environmental “cut-aways” that help to suggest an intriguing narrative beyond the plate.

An example of the creation of narrative in creative food photography

Peden + Munk’s series Oaxaca starts off very strong

However, while several series of photos start off in a clearly well thought out and varied order, some edits then inexplicably go on to assume ever increasingly random-looking groupings as they progress – as if the photographers lacked either the sufficient time or concentration to see the process through to termination.

On occasion, a sequence will even disintegrate into an order that appears to owe more to the chronological numbering of file names than to narrative intent or artistic vision. As for example is the case with the series Oaxaca, where several graphic shots of cacti have been unceremoniously dumped at the end – as if only an afterthought to the more traditional creative food photography that came earlier.

A strong example of creative food photography

Peden + Munk’s talent for casting and sequencing makes for intriguing visual narratives

Although undoubtedly there’s always some risk that the editorial lifestyle imagery of this kind will veer a little too close to stock photo territory to remain truly credible, to their credit Peden + Munk succeed in evading the worst of these pitfalls. So while there are plenty of shots of impossibly stylish groups of “creative types” relaxing in various secret outdoor idylls, we’re given none of the threadbare clichés that many less-talented photographers instinctively fall back on when depicting such scenes. Indeed the beautiful people who inhabit Peden + Munk’s world are of an altogether more convincing and sympathetic kind than the one-dimensional punch-out hipsters of standard “aspirational” lifestyle photography.

Some might query whether Peden + Munk can really be considered food photographers at all. But it’s not easy to see how such a question adds anything of value to the conversation. They take photos; many of which contain food. Either you like their photos, or you don’t. And here at Best Food Photography we definitely fall into the former of these two categories. Certainly, we would much sooner see some more of their lively and stylish culinary-themed visual narratives than yet another identical bit of food-photography-by-numbers.

While much so-called creative food photography is often anything but creative, Peden + Munk can claim the title with considerable justification.

Eight Ottawa restaurants on 2023 Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants list

The highest local restaurant on the list is Alice on Adeline Street.

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Ottawa’s culinary scene had its best showing to date when the annual list of Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants was released this week.

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Eight Ottawa restaurants appeared on the list, with Alice on Adeline Street, the cutting-edge plant-based restaurant, highest among them. Alice ranked 31st on the prestigious list. Earlier this year, Alice’s chef-owner, Briana Kim, won the Canadian Culinary Championship.

The list debuted in the mid-2010s. In previous years, Ottawa has had as many as seven restaurants and as few as two crack the list. The city’s second-best showing was last year.

On this year’s list were 27 Montreal restaurants, including top-ranked Mon Lapin. The list also included 18 restaurants from Toronto, 18 from Vancouver, 10 from Alberta — seven in Calgary — four in Halifax, two in Winnipeg and one each from St. John’s and Bay Fortune, PEI

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Arlo, a Centretown restaurant, placed 62nd its first appearance on the top-100 list.
Arlo, a Centretown restaurant, placed 62nd its first appearance on the top-100 list. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia

The other seven Ottawa restaurants on the list were:

• Riviera — Ranked 49th, the posh Sparks Street restaurant has a big-city vibe and is a hangout for Ottawa’s politicos and power players.

• Arlo — Ranking 62nd, the Centretown restaurant is making the list for the first time.

• Supply and Demand — Ranking 63rd, the Wellington Street West restaurant is a favorite for small plates and house-made pastas.

• Perch — Ranked 85th, chef-owner Justin Champagne-Lagarde’s small restaurant, which focuses on refined tasting menus, also ranked fourth on the most recent enRoute magazine list of Canada’s best new restaurants. Opened a year and a half ago, Perch is appearing on the Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants list for the first time.

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• Atelier — Ranking 88th, the Rochester Street restaurant opened by chef-owner Marc Lepine, two-time winner of the Canadian Culinary Championship, proved that extravagant tasting-menu dining was feasible in Ottawa.

• North & Navy — Ranked 96th, the Nepean Street restaurant is one of Ottawa’s top choices for refined Italian cuisine.

• Gitanes — Ranking 97th, the Elgin Street restaurant is inspired by French cuisine. Opened in 2019, Gitanes is appearing on the Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants list for the first time.

This year’s list was based on input from 130 judges, including 20 new additions. This writer was a judge this year, and also judged in past years.

The full list can be found at canadas100best.com.

A sister list of Canada’s 50 Best Bars was also compiled, based on the input of more than 60 judges. Sidecar, hidden below the Preston Street restaurant Mati, ranked 32nd.

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Frate Street Food opens to the public

Chef Rob Nesbitt said his love of travel served as inspiration for a unique new restaurant in Ford City – Windsor’s first restaurant based out of a shipping container.

“I wanted to bring something unique to Windsor,” he said. “Essentially, if you didn’t go away on vacation and you wanted to get away, this is the place.”

Frate Street Food’s pink shipping container is located in the green space beside Pressure Drop on Drouillard Road.

Nesbitt said a Cinco de Mayo themed grand opening was planned for the weekend ahead, after they had soft launched the establishment earlier in the spring.

“We took advantage of some nice weather in the beginning of April and it went great,” he said.

For the rest of spring, Frate Street Food will be open Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3 pm to 9:00 pm, Fridays from 3 pm to 10:00 pm and Saturdays from 11 am to 10 pm

Nesbitt plans to expand hours in the summer.

He said the menu would rotate every two weeks, offering up different globally-inspired street food options all the time.

For now, he said the lamb tacos, and overall atmosphere, have been big hits.

“It’s almost like you’re in your friend’s backyard on a Caribbean island,” he said.

Chef Talks: Fresh, local and straight off the wood-burning fire at the Jonny Blonde food truck

Hamilton·Videos

Aicha Smith-Belghaba, Indigenous story teller, journalist, chef and owner of Esha’s Eats talks with chef Jonathan Tjerkstra, as he prepares steaks and burgers on the wood burning oven inside Hamilton’s Jonny Blonde food truck.

This is the third part of a spring series where Aicha Smith-Belghaba talks with local chefs

Chef Talks: Fresh, local and straight off the wood-burning fire at the Jonny Blonde food truck

Aicha Smith-Belghaba, Indigenous story teller, journalist, chef and owner of Esha’s Eats talks with chef Jonathan Tjerkstra, as he prepares steaks and burgers on the wood burning oven inside Hamilton’s Jonny Blonde food truck.

At Jonny Blonde’s food truck in Hamilton, chef Jonathan Tjersktra promises that every penny he spends on food goes to local producers.

He says “it’s no joke. 100 percent of our money that we spend goes to local farmers and producers.”

Aicha Smith-Belghaba, Indigenous storyteller, journalist, chef and owner of Esha’s Eats spoke with chef Tjerkstra, as he prepared steaks and burgers on the wood burning oven inside the truck.

His commitment to local food goes beyond the money he spends for ingredients. He’s planning Cook Camp 2023. It’s a farm feast coming this summer or fall that is designed to bring local chefs together.

Layal Al-Haidari, co-owner and operator of Jonny Blonde, says the last Cook Camp was held in 2020 organized by Tjerkstra and chef Salar Madadi and hosted by Manorun Farm.

Have you been to Jonny Blonde’s? What did you think? Let us know in the comments section below.

Chef Jonathan Tjerkstra stands beneath the sign for his food truck, Jonny Blonde.
The Jonny Blonde food truck features an applewood-burning oven that cooks meat and vegetables purchased entirely from local food producers. (Conrad Collaco/CBC)

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A new cooking show breaks down borders through food

For Emmanuel Gonzalez Perez, the Mexican dish carne en su jugo — meat in its juices — is a reminder of the home he hasn’t been able to return to in over 20 years.

Gonzalez Perez, 27, of Sacramento, California, has taken his family’s recipe to “No Borders, Just Flavors!” — a YouTube cooking competition.

Produced by United We Dream, the country’s largest youth-led immigrant advocacy network, the coming show pits a young immigrant cast competing against one another as they showcase family recipes.

Contestants from first- and second-generation immigrant backgrounds prepare meals from their families’ heritages, including salted egg tofu, a common delicacy in China and Indonesia, Indian panchmel dal (lentils) and seco de pollo (chicken stew), which is common in Ecuadorian and Peruvian cuisine.

For Gonzalez Perez, crafting the meal with its flavorful bacon, beans and broth with blended tomatillos is one of the few ways he can connect with his mainland and family. “Even though we’re so far away, we’re still able to at least eat the same food with the same taste,” he said.

United We Dream has been one of the country’s most visible organizations pushing for young immigrants’ rights, credited with applying pressure for government action that culminated in President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which allows immigrants to be brought to the US as children but without legal status to work and study without fear of being deported.

“I think that we take for granted that food is a medium of storytelling. There’s history behind almost every dish we eat. … Food is a space for storytelling, and it’s also a space for meaning-making and identity-making,” said executive producer Juanita Monsalve, a senior creative director at United We Dream.

The production was intended to show and share diverse immigrant stories that don’t center on tragedy and hardship. It is meant to spotlight stories of joy, courage and wisdom, she said.

It’s also a pioneering YouTube entertainment show, created and distributed by an advocacy organization, according to Monsalve.

“I think that unlike other cooking shows, the show doesn’t ask people to hold a part of themselves back. And so we brought a diverse set of people with unique experiences and asked them to share all forms or all aspects of their identities through their cooking,” he said.

Contestants cook dishes based on specific categories and are judged by the host, Morelys De Los Santos Urbano, an Afro Dominican college student who founded an organization at Morgan State University to support undocumented students like her — one of the first groups of its kind at an HBCU (historically Black college and university). Other judges include guest TikTok food content creators and chefs. The contestants have 90 minutes to complete their concoctions.

Winning dishes are selected based on flavour, presentation and storytelling. Contestants are able to sabotage their competitors by choosing to hit a “dance-off button,” requiring contestants to stop cooking and dance for three minutes. Or they’re able to request help by hitting the “teamwork button,” and their competitors will help on their own dishes for three minutes.

‘Connecting with other communities’ through food

Gonzalez Perez, a community assistant at the Weber Institute of Applied Sciences & Technology high school in Stockton, California, is featured in the first episode.

Originally from Guadalajara in the Mexican state of Jalisco, Gonzalez Perez is a DACA recipient. Under the program, he can travel back to his home country with “advance parole” only for educational, employment or urgent humanitarian purposes.

Gonzalez Perez said he grew up a big fan of cooking shows but didn’t see much diversity reflected in them. By being able to participate in the show, he was able to learn other cultures through his competitors’ stories and dishes.

“I think the show does an amazing [job] in showcasing our humanity, our identity, and I think this should serve as a point for people to really [be] able to start connecting with other communities. Sometimes we tend to only eat our own food or stay within our own culture,” he said.

Monsalve has been working to humanize immigrant stories for six years. She also produced “Home is Here,” a nine-part documentary shorts series that was submitted to the US Supreme Court as the first digital amicus (friend of the court) brief in support of the immigrant rights movement, which helped build support to protect DACA.

The show’s four 15-minute episodes were filmed in Houston by a diverse crew in December. Episodes will premiere at 8 am ET Thursdays on YouTube starting Thursday.

Black Bean Tacos – Breakfast by the sea – Brighton food & photography blog

A little Mexican color and spice to liven up lunch or dinner. These tacos are really easy to make and are perfect for a light dinner – you can add as many toppings as you like. If you’re looking to cut down on the amount of meat in your diet then black beans are a great option as they are packed with protein to provide you with a really balanced plate. Tinned beans are also a budget-friendly option. This recipe keeps really well (minus the avocado) so make a few extra and you’ll have tomorrow’s lunch ready to go!

Ingredients
1 tin 400g black beans
1 red pepper, cut into small chucks
1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp cumin
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp of cocoa
1 large tomato, cut in small chunks
1 tsp of vegetable oil

to serve
Grated cheddar cheese
Small tin of sweetcorn
1 lime
An avocado
4 small taco wraps
1 small red onion
Handful of cherry tomatoes

method
1.) Preheat your oven to 200oc
2.) Add your beans, chopped pepper, tomato, garlic, cocoa, paprika and cumin to a small roasting tin, mix in the oil and pop in the oven for 20 mins
3.) Fold your tacos in half and lightly toast them in a toaster for 1 min on a low setting until lightly brown on each side (be careful here as the tacos are thin and can burn very quickly if left too long)
4.) To serve it’s much more fun to bowl up all your toppings and your black bean mixture individually and allow people to fill their own tacos at the table. A good squeeze of lime on your avocado will prevent it from browning.

Posyandus was told to provide animal protein as supplementary food

Jakarta (ANTARA) – The National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN) has recommended that animal protein be provided as supplementary food (PMT) to infants and toddlers at integrated health posts (posyandus) instead of biscuits that are high in carbohydrates.

“We have already prepared the Special Allocation Fund (DAK) to provide additional food at posyandus. The fund will be managed by local governments, especially those with low financial capacity,” BKKBN Head Hasto Wardoyo informed after attending the agency’s national work meeting in Jakarta on Wednesday.

He said that President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has directed that supplementary foods provided to children aged over six months include local products that contain a lot of animal protein.

Previously, the supplementary food provided by posyandus was in the form of biscuits. In fact, during his monitoring of stunting reduction acceleration, the President said that the consumption of biscuits may not be sufficient to prevent stunting.

“President Jokowi asked us to provide local foods, not (those made by) manufacturers, without containing a lot of carbohydrates. This is very important because local products are not expensive. At least one egg a day is good, catfish is also good. The public doesn’t have to buy tuna or salmon; just buy mackerel with the same nutritional content,” Wardoyo said.

Regional governments have provided the DAK for supplementary food, he added. The funds have been distributed under the supervision of regional teams for the acceleration of stunting reduction (TPPS).

The teams comprised deputy regional heads, cadres of the family welfare movement (PKK), sub-district heads, and village heads, he said.

In addition, supervision at the sub-district level is also being ensured through the obligation to hold one mini-workshop at least once a month. Meanwhile, at the district level, audits of stunting cases must be intensified twice a year, Wardoyo added.

He also asked the public to pay attention to measuring children’s growth and development at the posyandus. It is hoped that the 300 thousand posyandus across the country will have anthropometric devices to measure children’s height/length and weight to facilitate data collection.

“We want all posyandus throughout Indonesia to have the same measurement method. Many regional heads protested the results of the Indonesian Nutrition Status Study (SSGI) released by the Health Ministry because they thought their stunting data was lower than those released. Each region uses its own measurement method,” Wardoyo explained.

President Widodo also emphasized that starting this year, he will not provide assistance in the form of biscuits at posyandus.

He directed all parties to encourage the provision of local foods and provide animal protein to children to prevent stunting.

In addition, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said that he had been warned by experts to stop providing biscuits at posyandus and encourage the fulfillment of children’s nutrition through animal proteins.

He was also advised to accord priority to providing eggs, fish, or chicken as animal protein sources, considering that one of the periods when stunting occurs is when children are over six months old and need to consume supplementary food.

Sadikin further explained that based on the SSGI data, the stunting rate will slide to 21.6% in 2022 from 24.4% in 2021.

Related news: Blood-booster tablets essential to prevent stunted growth: Minister
Related news: Endeavoring to realize Indonesia without anemia from early age

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