Shaping lives with good nutrition

Some of the Sustainable Development Goals listed include the following: End poverty in all its forms everywhere; End hunger, achieve food security and improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture; Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages; Ensure inclusive and quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all; Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls; Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all; Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all; Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all; Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation; Reduce inequalities within and among countries; Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable; and Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns (United Nations, General Assembly 2015).

Food projects Today’s article will focus on promoting good nutrition, and health and wellness in families and communities.

You should note that improving and/or maintaining the nutritional status of infants, children, adolescents, adults, seniors, and pregnant and lactating women; as well as eradicating poverty, ensuring the availability and accessibility to nutritious foods, clean water, and encouraging the preparation of balanced meals remain priority. Whatever the case, good nutrition is essential throughout the lifecycle; this of course includes all members of household and community residents.

A practical approach to consider is that families, colleagues, church associates, educators, as well as children and adolescents can come together and work on kitchen garden projects, menu planning and meal preparation.

This of course, indicates that the pooling of various resources can provide opportunities, aiding persons and communities in ending poverty, alleviating hunger, and working collaboratively on improving food and nutrition security.

Moreover, according to the United Nations, “poverty is more than the lack of income and resources to ensure a sustainable livelihood. The manifestations can include, but not limited to hunger, malnutrition, lack of or limited access to education and/ or basic services, social discrimination and exclusion, and also the lack of participation in decision- making.”

Hungry children In addition, globally some of the challenges noted include that one in nine people are undernourished; worldwide the majority of individuals (12.9 percent of the population) negatively impacted by hunger reside in developing countries. With poor nutrition contributing to more than 40 percent of the deaths in children younger than fiveyears- old, indicating 3.1 million children annually.

While one in four children suffer from stunted growth; overall, 66 million children in primary schools attend classes hungry in the developing world, of which 23 million is in Africa.

For food and nutrition security, encouraging greater participation in agriculture at the local, regional, and international levels is critical.

This approach can more than likely not only increase access and availability to food, but enhance nutritional status in households and perhaps may lower the food import bill.

According to the United Nations, at least 80 percent of the food consumed mainly in the developing world, are provided by 500 million small farms. They also stated that: the food and agricultural sector provide solutions for development and can aid in hunger and poverty eradication; and making investments in small farmers are essential, and cannot be overlooked as this can be another approach used to increase food and nutrition security among the poor, as well as food production for local and global markets. Overall, “agricultural biodiversity can contribute to persons having more nutritious diets, enhanced livelihoods for farming communities, and more resilient and sustainable farming communities.”

Points to note Good nutrition begins at home.

Start a small kitchen garden by planting a few short-term crops such as pimientos, green peppers, cucumbers, eggplant (melongene), chives and celery.

Meal managers should aim to prepare balanced home-cooked meals, utilising local produce from kitchen and community gardens.

Be willing to try new recipes.

Always use the Caribbean Foods Groups in meal planning.

You should keep in mind that in promoting health and wellness among the population, governments at the local, regional, and international levels offer the school meals programme, and in some cases public assistance to the vulnerable and pension for senior citizens.

Registered dietitians, nutritionists, public health educators, and food demonstrators can collaborate to provide nutrition education to school-aged children, parents, caterers, cafeteria operators, educators and community residents.

Nutrition message: individuals can work together to build strong and healthy communities