Strengthening Community Food Security through Posyandu Cadre and Midwife Empowerment Action Program

Community food security means fulfilment of energy and nutrients of every community member from daily food consumption intake. Non-fulfilment of these requirements led to the incidence of malnutrition in the community, which marked by the emergence of nutritional problems among the nutrition vulnerable groups, such as low body weight of under five  years olds children, malnourished including stunting children. Food and nutritional insights of  the community program actors, such as posyandu and nutrition cadres, and midwives plays an important role in efforts to prevent and repair the problem of malnutrition in young children, especially from the lower to middle income groups. Therefore, empowerment posyandu cadres, nutrition cadres, and midwives  through briefing mastery of knowledge (cognitive competence) food, nutrition, and nutritional status, is the critical point of community food security. The purpose of this descriptive pre-post design  study is evaluate the effect of  the short nutrition class program on the increase of food, nutrition, and health knowledge of posyandu cadres,  nutrition cadres, and  midwives who play an important roles in handling  the vulnerable malnourished families with  infant and under fives children whose body weight below the red line standard (BGM) or stunting.  The cadre and midwives subject was selected from the high stunting problem villages in the Sumbersari district in Jember. By 75 percent of active posyandu cadre  and  all midwife  in  the  high prevalence malnourished regencies were selected   as subject.  After  following the action program  of nutrition class  about nutritious food for the family, most of participants (80 %) increased their food nutritional insights. Similarly, after participated in pregnancy nutrition class program,  the insight knowledge of the majority (95%) of the midwives on pregnancy nutrition increased, proper and correct. After attending the balanced nutrition class  by 75 percent of subject increased insight of balanced diet for family.