Zero Hunger

Introduction                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

The zero hunger goal aims to alleviate hunger and all other aspects related to malnutrition by increasing agricultural productivity and thereby ensuring universal accessibility, availability and affordability of nutritious food. Globally, one in every 9 people are undernourished. It is also estimated that the number of hungry individuals worldwide is expected to increase drastically by 2050. India ranks 101 in the global hunger index of the total 116 countries.

Nitte DU has taken initiatives in the area of food security, nutrition and well-being in their service area to alleviate hunger as a part of its social responsibility.

ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT FOR THE ADEQUATE AND HEALTHY DIET

To encourage and motivate the farmers who cultivate and practice organic farming, Nitte DU monitors the vegetables supplied to hostel kitchens. The usage of organic vegetables has positive impacts towards sustainable development goals like zero hunger, good health and well-being, clean water and sanitation, responsible consumption and production, climate action, life below water, and life on land.

PAAKASHALE – MOBILE APP FOR ORDERING HEALTHY FOOD

Nitte DU ensures access to healthy food for all its students. Students can also order freshly cooked food of their choice on “Paaka-Shale”, a food delivery app exclusively for hostelers. This app is your guide to locating a variety of menus of freshly cooked healthy food.

HEALTH BAR:

The staff, faculty and students on campus have access to healthy eatery options. They have options of traditional and continental food outlets on campus. In addition, they are provided with a health bar option that serves sugar free fresh juices and oil-free savouries.

DEPARTMENT OF NUTRITION AND DIETETICS

The nutrition and Dietetics Department at the hospital setup is ensuring the customised diet of the patients as well as overall wellbeing. They also develop diet regimes for pregnant women for pre-partum and post-partum conditions.

FOOD SAFETY AND BIOTECHNOLOGY (NUCSER)

The Division of Food Safety and Nutrition focuses on generating trained manpower as well as conducting research related to fundamental and applied aspects of pathogen biology, understanding their mode of action, the molecular mechanisms involved and developing rapid and sensitive molecular detection techniques for major foodborne infectious agents. The division encourages the concept of transfer of technology, enabling the scientists to develop techniques and tools with potential commercial applications. The division is also involved in educating and training undergraduate and graduate students in various molecular, immunologic, epidemiologic, and biologic aspects of foodborne microbial pathogenesis, as well as monitoring, control and prevention of such diseases. The division is also committed to training health professionals through various outreach programs.

ELECTIVE COURSE ON PUBLIC HEALTH NUTRITION

In order to sensitize the students on the importance of nutrition, the University has designed electives for the students of Public Health and Health Administration from the year 2019. The students can opt for this subject during the second semester of their program.

SDG 2This elective is designed to impart a basic understanding of public health nutrition and enhance knowledge and skills for practice. The curriculum includes public health nutrition; its role and scope in India; food and nutrition security; interactive nature of nutrition-infection-disease management; the triple burden of malnutrition and nutrition policies and programs. The objectives of the course are to integrate basic knowledge while enhancing skills in public health nutrition among participants. The course intends to sensitize the social development sector professionals for meeting the challenges of nutrition and health.

EXPERTS ON CAMPUS:

Dr. Iddya Karunasagar
(Senior Fishery Industry Officer at FAO),
Senior Director (International Relations),
Nitte DU

He was the Senior Fishery Industry Officer in the Aquaculture and Fisheries Department at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations at Rome, looking after the area of quality and safety during 2007-2014. In this position, he worked closely with Codex Committee on Fish and Fishery Products and Codex Committee on Food Hygiene and was involved in the work of FAO/WHO Joint Expert Meetings in Microbiological Risk Assessment (JEMRA). Prior to joining FAO, he served as Drafting Member in FAO/WHO risk assessment for Vibrio spp in seafood. He served as a National Professor of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research. His research focussed on ecology, virulence and detection of foodborne pathogens.

OUTREACH

• AnnMol- A Special Gift to Humanity (Student awareness video on food wastage)
Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations (FAO) estimates that around 690 million people went to hunger in 2019. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) reports that 17 per cent of the food available at the customer level are being wasted, 11 per cent at the household level, 5% at the service level, and 2 per cent at the retail level.

The Department of Public Health, KSHEMA, NITTE Deemed to be University, had initiated an awareness program for prevention and control of food wastage on campus in form of a video.


The University stresses and encourages students to value food and constantly reminds them of the importance of nutrition. Informative pamphlets and AnnMol video is displayed at the mess of the hostel. The video is played in the dining hall daily during meals time.


• Student interactive discussion session on Zero Hunger.
The University organized a group discussion on zero hunger to the students of Nitte University to limit the wastage of food and help to reduce other people’s hunger. The interactive lecture was conducted in the auditorium of Nitte DU for two hours stressing the global effort needed to achieve a sustainable development goal (SDG) zero hunger. A country like Yemen, Syria, was sighted as examples as it is war-torn with a food crisis and how and what role the World Food Program of the United Nations plays a vital role in solving and tackling the issue of food crisis. The outcome of this discussion session: Three- step conduct in dining halls:
1. Self-monitor the first serving
2. Think before the second serving
3. Aim towards zero waste before washing the plate.


• Student Exchange Program with University of Minnesota:



• Map the food, shed diet miles and ecological footprint of your family as a unit:
  The Nitte Institute of Architecture has taken up the activity of mapping foodshed, diet miles and ecological footprint as a part of student assignment. The mapping of complex network/ layers in a cross-disciplinary manner such as indigenous species, diversity of foods, seasonal transformations, supply chains, processing, production-consumption patterns, embodied energy of transportation network/packaging, lifestyle analysis, ecological costs, the role/ presence of corporations, exploitation, small- scale livelihoods, waste generated and its fate (and many more aspects as you discover through your explorations) was executed.

• Celebration of World Food Day:
  NUCSER celebrated World Food Day on 19th October 2019 at the University Auditorium, Paneer campus. World Food Day is celebrated worldwide on 16th October each year with a unique theme. The theme for 2019 was “Healthy Diet for zero hunger.” Dr. Harsha Vardhan Batra, Former Director, Defense Food Research Laboratory, DRDO, Mysore was the chief guest for the function. Dr. Mamatha BS, Asst. Professor, NUCSER welcomed the gathering with a brief note on the importance of World Food Day. Dr. Harsha Vardhan Batra in his address, highlighted on the hunger index ranking of our country and emphasized the reason for food not reaching the community,

WORLD FOOD DAY 2020:

A webinar was organized under DST-NUTEC, NUCSER platform to celebrate World Food Day on 16th October 2020. In his introductory remarks, Dr. Iddya Karunasagar, Advisor (Research & Patents), Nitte DU, highlighted the theme of this year’s World Food Day - ‘Grow, Nourish, Sustain Together’ and also explained the role of FAO & WHO on food safety and food security. Two eminent speakers - Dr. S. Dave, Former Advisor, FSSAI & former Chairman, Codex Alimentarius Commission (2011 - 2014) and Dr. Eram S. Rao, Vice Principal and HoD- Food Technology, Bhaskaracharya College of Applied Sciences, University of Delhi, delivered talks on ‘The national context of food safety’ and ‘Innovative Food Processing Technologies to accelerate the growth of the food processing sector in India’ respectively. Prof. Dr. Indrani Karunasagar, Director, Projects & NU-TEC, Nitte DU, spoke on the water quality and public health.

INTRAMURAL FUNDED RESEARCH PROJECTS:

• Importance of Breastfeeding
  The faculty from the nursing institute conducted a study on the Effect of pre-partum education on knowledge and practice of initiation of breastfeeding among post-partum mothers.
• Vegetable crops and their role in antibiotic resistance
  Faculty from NUCSER conducted a study on the Profiling of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria in Local Vegetable Crops.

PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

Ensuring universal access to nutritious food
The University has a network of 18 rural health satellite centres providing ANC care at the peripheral centres. The University is committed to ensuring universal access to nutritious food in the 1000-day window of opportunity between the start of pregnancy and a child’s second birthday.