Collective Action to Improve Family Food Patterns as an Effort to Prevent Malnutrition in Children

Abstract

The problem of malnutrition in children is still a serious challenge in Indonesia, especially in rural areas that have limited access to nutritious food and health information. This service program aims to identify the condition of family food patterns in the target area, analyze factors that affect the low awareness of healthy food pattern practices, design forms of collective action to improve family knowledge and skills in implementing balanced nutritious food patterns, and measure the effectiveness of collective action in preventing malnutrition in children. The implementation method uses a participatory approach through counseling, training, and mentoring to 100 participants from various categories of society in Karangpatihan, Balong, Ponorogo, East Java for three days on January 11-13, 2025. The results of the activity showed a significant increase in public knowledge about balanced nutrition from 42% to 85%, an increase in nutritious food processing skills from 38% to 78%, and changes in family food consumption behavior that was more diverse and nutritious. Collective action has proven to be effective in increasing awareness and practice of healthy food patterns through the formation of nutrition care groups, demonstrations of nutritious food processing, and joint monitoring systems. This activity makes a significant contribution to efforts to prevent malnutrition in children through a sustainable community approach that can be replicated in other regions with similar characteristics