Because nutritional fulfillment must both be understood and started as early as possible, this education will target women of various ages - including mothers whose infants have reached the MPASI stage - by further collaborating with strategic partners such as the National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN) and the Nahdlatul Ulama Amil Zakat, Infaq and Sadaqah Institution (NU Care-LAZISNU) as part of the Nahdhatul Ulama Maslahat Family Movement (GKMNU).
This mission is also supported by Budi Gunadi Sadikin, Minister of Health, Republic of Indonesia. In his speech, he stated: “The Golden Indonesia by 2045 cannot be realized without healthy and intelligent people. For this reason, it is very important to maintain and improve public health; one goal is learning to consume nutritious food. For this reason, the National Nutrition Day 2024 raises the theme ‘Animal Protein-Rich Complementary Food to Prevent Stunting’.
This ensures that consuming nutritious food starts with the family and involves parents' heightened understanding of how important it is to wean their children with animal protein-rich foods. As a result, their children will gradually become familiar with nutritious food to prevent stunting. It is an unfortunate fact that in Indonesia, 4 out of 10 children ages 6-23 months do not receive complementary food according to nutritional standards, which increases the risk of stunting in children under two years old. Therefore, education and assistance with nutritious consumption practices must be strengthened.
"As the Minister of Health, I would like to express my appreciation and gratitude to Unilever for its contribution in the effort to reduce stunting. Hopefully this collaboration can continue to have positive impacts on healthy and stunting-free Indonesian children," Budi continued.
As we know, stunting is caused by chronic malnutrition and is characterized by height below age standards. It could potentially cause metabolic disorders as these children become adults. This is why various efforts have been made by many parties to reduce the prevalence of stunting to 21.6% by 2023, but collaboration is still needed to achieve the target of reducing stunting to 14% by 2024.
Amaryllis Esti Wijono, Director of Nutrition, Unilever Indonesia said: "Royco, as moms’ favorite seasoning brand for delicious nutritious dishes for the family, continues to be committed to supporting the Government to overcome the problem of malnutrition, especially stunting.”
“For this reason, since 2019 we have promoted the 'Royco Nutrimenu' program: a series of educational activities that begin with Training of Trainers (ToT) of health cadres, who learn the inspirational ‘Isi Piringku' guidelines to prepare wide arrays of delicious, nutritionally balanced recipes. Until 2023, Alhamdulillah the program reached 18 million mothers and young women offline and online - including 900,000 santris in various stunting-prone areas and converted 120 million Indonesian families' to stack their plates with more nutritionally delicious fare.”
"Another important achievement is supporting the Indonesian Ministry of Health’s mission to disseminate the importance of nutritionally balanced complementary foods by encouraging mothers to enrich their knowledge. For this reason, a recipe book has been issued as a guide to create various complementary foods according to the ‘Isi Piringku’. As a result, based on data from IPB University, 10 Bogor areas that implemented the Royco Nutrimenu MPASI program last year recorded a 37% reduction in the number of children at risk of stunting," continued Amaryllis.
This success is the result of collaboration with several partners, such as:
- BKKBN through the Dapur Sehat Atasi Stunting (DASHAT) program: Community empowerment at the village level to fulfill balanced nutrition for families at risk of stunting
- IPB University: Educational program on nutrition and complementary feeding through ToT activities for mothers with babies under 2 years old
- PNM Mekaar through the Ibu Sehat Keluarga Sejahtera (BU KARSA) program: Educating and empowering underprivileged women to be more nutrition literate
Dr. (HC) dr. Hasto Wardoyo, Sp.OG.(K), the Head of BKKBN, represented by Dr. dr. Wahidin, M.Kes, the Head of Planning Bureau, commented: "In celebrating National Nutrition Day, let me thank PT Unilever - Royco for supporting the government's efforts to educate the public and improve child nutrition through DASHAT in Kampung Keluarga Berkualitas.”
“DAHSAT activities are expected to be a forum to educate parents about balanced nutritional dishes to ensure that future mothers, pregnant and lactating mothers as well as children under-five receive balanced nutritional intakes to optimize 1,000 HPK and prevent new stunting through food that supports the growth and development of children under the age of five. I hope that BKKBN’s collaboration with PT Unilever - Royco can continue to educate Indonesians to alleviate stunting in Indonesia."
To expand the benefits, in 2024 the "Royco Nutrimenu" program will continue to develop its collaboration network by targeting women of various ages, such as young girls, to provide knowledge that prevents malnutrition in the future. Therefore, Royco’ nutrition education is collaborating with NU Care-LAZISNU, as part of GKMNU (which specifically targets the NUCare Sehat pillar), to focus on preventive actions regarding health. This collaboration targets various layers of society, including the grassroots level and santriwati in NU Islamic boarding schools as well as Majlis Taklim mothers to reach 50,000 santriwati and 50,000 mothers.
Habib Ali Hasan Al Bahar, the Chairman of the NU Care-LAZISNU Central Board explained: "We from LAZISNU, as part of GKMNU, are very proud to be a part of Royco’s Nutrimenu activity and therefore, as part of the big board of Nahdatul Ulama, are very appreciative. LAZISNU’s pillars include one related to health; when talking about health, it is impossible for us to forget a very important problem, namely stunting. Our cooperation with Unilever will support these pillars of the program to realize the Maslahat Family: a family that is strong physically, mentally, and spiritually.”
“With a network that extends to all corners of Indonesia, we now have the power to disseminate this critically important message. When we can work together, Insha Allah, we will be ready to bring tens of thousands of mothers and santriwati to become educated on the importance of good nutrition to prevent stunting. We have finally opened this door and support this program 1,500% so that it can reduce the stunting rate in Indonesia - for a strong Indonesia, a healthy Indonesia."
Citra Kirana, who is familiarly called Ciki, is a celebrity very concerned about the health of her family. She also responded: “As a mom, I continue to educate myself to be able to serve delicious and nutritionally balanced dishes that not only support the growth and development of my children, but also nourish all my family members. I can never get enough of learning, so I appreciate Royco and all its partners’ efforts to educate the public through 'Royco Nutrimenu' program, and believe that this continues to be needed by all mothers and mothers-to-be.”
Ciki also shared some tips for moms: "Preparing dishes at home doesn't have to be complicated. With the same ingredients, we can be creative in preparing various dishes for any ages. Moreover, Royco helps me choose seasonings easily. For my husband, I just add Royco Merah, which can make the taste of the dish MANTAP, while for Athar, there is Royco Spesial Hijau without micin which I rely on during the MPASI period.”
“The 'Royco Nutrimenu' program will hopefully inspire more mothers and mothers-to-be to create healthier Indonesian families who fully benefit from balanced nutritional intakes. Together, we welcome a stunting-free Golden Generation by 2045," concluded Amaryllis.