Nutrifest

NUTRIFEST - “A festival for nutritional awareness” is organized every year at the centre to create awareness on the importance of right and balanced diet in growing children. This year it was celebrated on Friday the 25th March between 11.00 am and 1.30 pm. This is the fifteenth year that we are organizing this festival. The event is specially designed to focus on the importance of nutritional intervention for special children. “Healthy Foods, Healthy Kids”.

The theme this year was “Age appropriate balanced diet with traditional recipes for children in the age groups Birth to 2 years, 2 to 4 years, 4 to 6 years and 7 to 15 years”. There was a cookery competition on the theme and marks were awarded as per the criteria listed below :

• Innovative and easily preparable recipe
• Presentation of the dish
• Charts depicting the nutritive value and role of traditional recipes in giving the children a balanced diet

The Judges of this year were :

• Dr. Rama Narayanan : She has all along her career been an advisor with M S Swaminathan Research Foundation as a nutritionist. She has many publications to her credit and has attended many conferences on the subject of Nutrition and has presented several papers on nutrition with focus on young children. She has over Twenty five years’ experience in Community and Public Health Nutrition, with expertise in the area of maternity and early childhood. Her Core competencies include community interventions, capacity building of grass root functionaries, and qualitative participatory research with people and academic research with policy analysis for addressing under nutrition.


• Mrs. Revathi Shanmugam : who has appeared on more than 900 food shows on various TV channels, writer of cookery books and an accomplished cook herself is well known, and we had the pleasure of having her as a judge in 2019. Revathy is specialized in traditional cooking, predominantly south Indian cuisine. She featured in “Arusuvai Ithu Thani Suvai”, a Tamil show where she shows the magic of ingredients and helps viewers cook everyday meals traditionally and simplistically. Revathy runs a YouTube channel named “Revathy Shanmugamum Kavingar Veetu Samayalum.” She is the author of fifteen Tamil cookbooks. She has received various awards from various institutions and clubs.


• Dr. Yeshoda Thanikachalam : Among the finest Paediatricians in the city, Dr. Yesodha Thanikachalam practicing in Thiruvanmiyur, Chennai, is known for offering excellent patient care.  She has worked in Central Government Health Schemes in India for 32 years. She has worked in Institute of Child Health and Hospital for Children, Chennai, for 5 years. She has also worked in Spastics Society of India, Chennai as an honorary consultant for 17 years. She is managing a private hospital with level 2 care paediatrics.
  
  Mothers of children in the age groups of birth to 2 years, 2 to 4 years and 4 to 6 years and 7 – 15 years took part.


• Earlier Mrs. Avanti Prabhakar : Our honorary nutrition consultant, who holds a doctorate in Nutrition and Dietetics with more than 15 years of experience in teaching undergraduate and graduate students made a PowerPoint presentation to the mothers over a Google meet on the 11th to explain to them the nutritive value of the ingredients that they can use in traditional recipes. The mothers took guidance from her to participate in the cookery completion. On the day of the festival the parents with their children, teachers and other invitees gathered in the MNC hall with a colourful array of dishes, vying with each other for taste and display. About 50 dishes came out on the table and the three judges were put to difficulty in selecting the dishes that were outstanding.
  
  The mothers of 7 - 18 years and 4 - 6 years won the shield with a tie. The second prize was bagged by the mothers of 2 - 4 years group. A copy of the recipes is available in the MNC office.
  
  The day came to a close with the shield being awarded to the best team and the judges’ comments on the display and improvements that can be brought in.