How an Indonesian Company Successfully Influenced 70 Elementary Schools to Embrace Healthy Food Consumption Within 6 Months

There are two common health problems among children in Indonesia, one is the lack of nutrition, and the second is obesity problems. JAPFA for Kids is a flagship of PT Japfa Comfeed Indonesia’s CSR Programme which hopes to tackle this issue. The programme aims to raise awareness on healthy and nutritious food consumption among elementary students from rural areas. To achieve its goals, JAPFA re-introduced local nutritious food source based on the local culinary. Reinventing local knowledge on food diet starts with holistic understanding on the local vegetables, protein sources and local diet.

The six months programme by JAPFA has three main goals. First, to appoint healthy food ambassadors from each school to understand about healthy food; second, to increase teacher capacity to educate those healthy food ambassadors; and third, to raise awareness among students using peer to peer education methods.

JAPFA appointed “Healthy Food Ambassadors” in all elementary schools. Those ambassadors were educated on the full spectrum of food supply, which includes growing and harvesting vegetables, and sourcing for, preparing, and consuming heathy food.

One of their responsibilities were to grow vegetables at the school garden. After the vegetables are ready to be harvested, the ambassadors must have the capability to prepare healthy food using the raw materials. Furthermore, the food ambassadors are required to organise campaigns within their schools, with the help of their teachers, to promote healthy eating among their peers.

Here are the results of the CSR initiative:
  • Until 2018, JAPFA was able to educate more than 450 healthy food ambassadors from 70 schools in 6 provinces.
  • Through this initiative, up to 90% of the schools transformed their school canteen to serve more healthy and nutritious food, as well as have their own garden which produces vegetables and herbs.
  • Up to 80% of schools have programmes in place to promote healthy eating (e.g., healthy lunch box day).
In the near future, JAPFA will increase its peer to peer education model as a tool to increasing its impact to wider beneficiaries. To ensure its impact, it will focus on increasing the capacity of its ambassador and teachers to support the initiative.