NDA Sustainability Grants

The third round of NDA SFS Toolkit Grants is OPEN!

✍🏽 Applications are due by 2024 January 15 ✍🏽

Read the grant’s aims, criteria, and application form, then discuss with your NDA and apply! You are welcome to send your application before the deadline for us to review and provide feedback.

Seven ICDA member National Dietetic Associations (NDAs) were awarded Sustainable Food Systems (SFS) Toolkit grants in 2022 and 2023. See below for their progress / results.

4 grants were awarded in 2022 September:

🇦🇺 Australia is revising and expanding their Eco-Friendly Food Challenge.

• The updated resource will encourage dietitians to embark on a ‘choose your own adventure’ quest to modify their own diet-related practices, in line with current evidence regarding planetary health outcomes. 

• Liza Barbour and Sandra Murray explain that the working group continues to meet monthly and is in the final stages of prioritising and refining the quiz questions. Each quiz question asks participants to reflect upon and score their current diet-related practices. There is also a short blurb about why this is important for planetary health and a range of task options to complete as part of the challenge to improve their score. 

• The working group continues to work alongside Dietitians Australia, Dietitians Australia’s Food and Environment Interest Group, and a graphic designer to prepare the drafted quiz, ready for an initial pilot later in 2023. 

---

🇩🇪 Germany increased awareness for German speaking dietitians in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland towards sustainable achievements in the field of nutrition and dietetics and how to present these within the ICDA SFS-Toolkit. (2022 Sept – 2023 Aug)

• Manuela Thul led the project and produced a number of products in a participatory manner, and spread them via the toolkit and local structures such as: Webinars, Social media, NDA congress, and reaching out to schools and universities.

• Manuela promoted the grant and the #ICDAsfsToolkit on the Junior_Dietitian Instagram, on the digital chat at the 64th NDA congress 13.-14.05.2022, and in an article in NDA Newsletter, and in the Annual Business Report 2022 of the German Association of Dietitians. These are great ways to help your NDA to know the #ICDAsfsToolkit and the resources it contains.

• Another result of this promotion is the #ICDAsfsToolkit Advisor for Germany, Elina Zwickert who was also highlighted in the March issue of GROW — we hope you are subscribed!

---

🇬🇷 Greece is improving and spreading the “Straight from Nature” YouTube Channel which teaches about foods as they come from nature in a comprehensive way aiming to support food sustainability.

• The grant will help expand the work by increasing the number of videos / products and reaching bigger audiences.

• Her last two videos have already more than doubled the number of viewers.

• Contact Despina Varaklas if this interests you.

---

🇪🇸 Spain is working on “Transitioning to sustainable diets: a tool to identify people’s barriers and motivators for following a sustainable diet”.

• They will develop and validate a questionnaire to identify the motivators and barriers for following a sustainable diet among Spanish citizens living in an urbanized area and sensitive to socioeconomic differences. The tool that will be developed intends to provide the means for dietitians, and other stakeholders involved in public health, for the development of interventions aiming to equitably promote healthy and sustainable diets.

• Júlia Muñoz reports that steps 1 and 2 were successfully completed in 2022. After identifying all the barriers and facilitators for following a sustainable diet among different socioeconomic groups in Barcelona, a first draft of the questionnaire was drawn. This was administered to 9 Spanish experts in the fields of sustainability, nutrition (including a member from the Spanish NDA), psychology and sociology to validate the content.

• By 2023 March, the survey pre-test with citizens from the city of Barcelona and its urban surroundings was done through 3 focus group discussions and 5 individual interviews. Between April and June, it is expected to administer the online survey to a sample of 300-500 individuals across Spain. Results will be used for item reduction, extraction of factors, test dimensionality and reliability.

3 grants were awarded 2023 January:

🇳🇬 The Dietitians Association of Nigeria (DAN) is increasing knowledge of local dietitian-nutritionists about indigenous foods to promote consumption as part of sustainable diet. In their first 6 months of implementing the grant they have:

• Held a series of meeting with the DAN Council to brief them on the project and formed a project committee with terms of reference and reporting forms. Key members of the DAN Council and coordinators from the six (6) geographical regions of Nigeria. Virtual meetings and discussions are being held via various platforms including WhatsApp.

• Developed a questionnaire, including pretesting and validation, to collect and collate the varieties of foods indigenous to each region. A virtual meeting was held with all DAN members encouraging them to complete questionnaire.

• Energy and nutritional values of identified indigenous foods are being calculated and their culinary details are being compiled by the regional /state chapters. It was observed from the responses, that many nutrient-dense foods indigenous to various regions are on the verge of going extinct. Suggestions on how to reawaken interest in their cultivation and preparations using improved recipes are being gathered.

• The end aim is to: 1) Develop a printable resource for dietitian-nutritionists that documents variety of foods indigenous to each region according to each food group in the national dietary guidelines and presents relevant nutritional and culinary information. 2) Hold a webinar to share the resource with DAN State chapters. 3) Conduct community dialogues for CBOs by regional chapters.

---

🇿🇦 South Africa generates approximately 10 million tonnes of food waste throughout the supply chain each year. The aim of the project is to increase knowledge and awareness of local nutritionists and dietitians on household food waste as well as institutional food waste to promote literacy on food waste among consumers and institutional managers.

• The Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 target is to, by 2030, halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses.

• South Africa will create a multi-lingual tool (infographic) plus the encouragement to complete the ICDA SFS online modules. A printable multi-language resource that dietitians and nutritionists can use to pass onto consumers to improve food literacy on household food waste that documents household food waste breakdown (amount, types of foods, cost and environmental impact) and how to reduce household food waste through cook smart tips, zero waste recipes, upcycling etc.

• A workshop at the 2023 Nutrition Congress. Number of members who completed the ICDA online modules.

---

🇱🇰 Sri Lanka is working to reduce food waste and associated food costs in (selected) hospitals by 30% within 12 months through the introduction of the food waste tool kit.

• They will develop and introduce the “Minimum edible food wastage tool kit” for dietitians introduces the environment sustainable diet concept, building on tools already developed. The tool will be shared in ICDA SFS Toolkit for wider share among the members.  So far they have:

• Obtained ethical clearance from the Wayamba University of Sri Lanka and the selected hospital administrations. Trained Dietitians in food Inventory management and meal costing with an executive chef and a food supply management executive for Sri Lankan Dietitians. Conducted pilot studies in Surgical hospitals and multi-speciality hospitals on how to implement waste tracking systems to monitor and analyze food waste patterns, identify areas for improvement, and set reduction targets.

• Started to develop educational materials to raise awareness among patients, staff, and visitors about the importance of food waste reduction and provide tips for mindful eating. A video clip is to be developed to display on television in the patient’s room, at the admission counter, in patient’s lobby area, and will be sent as a WhatsApp app message to the patient’s personal phone. The Council of Dietitians’ Association of Sri Lanka requested to implement the program with minimum paper usage or paper-free, thus education materials will be digital flyers/leaflet or video clips.

• Conducted meetings to implement effective communication and collaboration strategies with kitchen staff, hospital administration, and other stakeholders to integrate waste reduction into healthcare operations. Officially contacted the HR team of other selected hospitals to include staff training on food waste management in their monthly training calendar.

• Next steps: Prior to the implementation of the “Minimum edible food wastage tool kit” A patient’s appetite screening tool needs to be developed and used by dietitians. Questions for the first version of the validation of the patient’s appetite screening tool is under development by the authors in consultation with practicing dietitians in Sri Lanka. It may be completed in the 2nd week of October 2023.

• Contact Roshan Delabandara for any questions or suggestions.

---

Feedback? Questions? Ideas? Contact the ICDA SFS Coordinator:  ICDAsfs.coordinator@acadiau.ca