Through innovative interventions, families can be motivated to return to nutritious home-cooked meals

A couple of years ago, when CHETNA, a not-for-profit working on health and nutrition awareness among women, adolescents and children, was conducting a survey, it found a large number of children living in the urban slum of Vasna, in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, almost addicted to packaged potato chips and other unhealthy snacks commonly found at grocery stores.

They often skipped home cooked meals, preferring to eat such ultra processed food. As a consequence, many of them became undernourished and anaemic. One of the strategies CHETNA adopted to wean children away from packaged food, was to demonstrate how traditional Gujarati snacks and complementary foods like shero, sukhdiand lads could be tasty as well as nutritious. Cooking them in the presence of mothers and caregivers helped them learn new ways of improving the nutrition levels of their children.

For five weeks the underweight children of 1 to 5 years were also fed supplementary food which had protein, fat and iron. The CHETNA team visited families thrice a week at a fixed time and followed a 30-minute approach’. This meant ensuring that the child sat down for 30 minutes while caregivers fed them home cooked food. For each child, there were 36 home visits.

Within seven to nine months of the intervention, the children were eating only home-cooked meals. To increase their calorie count, recipes from a mix of wheat flour and Bengal gram were also added to their menu. Slowly calories along with the other nutrients the children were consuming increased.At the end of nine months 166 initially underweight children were weighed of which 36% of children were found to be fully nourished. All 35 children who were eating only food packets started eating home-cooked food. To sustain this habit, CHETNA hit upon the idea of skilling the mothers and other women from economically marginalized communities living in these slums to also be able to gain financially from making such nutritious snacks. In August 2023, they began training women living in these slums to do both-- wean their children away from unhealthy snacks to homemade goodies and become nutri-entrepreneurs at the same time.

The first batch of 25 women began with a few lessons on diets, the importance of healthy eating and adding nutrition to snacks. Besides enhancing their nutrition education, they were advised on packaging, marketing and business management.

A kitchen was set up in the slum and the women were told about the importance of being professional and maintaining hygiene. They learnt to make nutritious sweetmeats like date laddoos, traditional khadi made from millets like ragi and beetroot shakarparas as well as savoury puffed millet and nachos, Women began selling their products to neighbours as well as shopkeepers.  In the first three months of 2024, the 25 women were able to sell about 60,000 kgs of homemade snacks. They are now earning Rs 4000 to Rs 5000 a month.For 35-year-old Champaben Makwana, a homemaker and mother of two, becoming a nutri-entrepreneur has made her dream of being financially independence come true. Her monthly income of Rs 5000 has given her the confidence to spread her wings and venture into online business through WhatsApp.

She is not only able to contribute to the family’s financial stability but more importantly, also stop her son’s recurrent stomach aches by substituting packaged snacks with homemade alternatives. Becoming a nutri-entrepreneur has turned around the life of 18-year-old Bhavna Sargara. After failing in English, Maths and Science in her 10thBoard exam, Sargara lost hope and became directionless.

The entrepreneurial training opened new doors and innovative culinary techniques and recipes have enabled her to earn Rs 5000 a month. This increase in income has given her the freedom to enrol in tuition classes to fulfil her educational aspirations. She is preparing to take her 12th Board exams. Additionally, she is also providing financial help to her family and encouraging her younger siblings to continue their studies. It is well known that ultra processed food such as chips and noodles contain unhealthy levels of fats, salt and sugar. One of the reasons for this is that emulsifiers, additives, preservatives and stabilizers that are not usually used in home kitchens can be found in these products to prolong their shelf life. 

Studies have shown that consumption of these contributes to increasing the risk of developing type -2 diabetes besides other lifestyle-related diseases. The biggest impact of aggressive marketing of unhealthy food products is among communities belonging to the lowest 20% income group who spend 5.5% on packaged foods, according to studies. However, the CHETNA initiative shows that all that is packaged does not have to be unhealthy. It can be nutritious and healthy. All it takes is will and nutrition education.

(The writer is a journalist writing on development and gender. The views are personal)