Mombasa County Government in partnership with the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) organisation, has launched the ‘Vegetable for All’ campaign to increase vegetable consumption among dwellers.
The project will focus on dark green leafy, vitamin-A rich and other vegetables.
Recent preliminary data from the Global Diet Quality Project revealed that 65 per cent of Kenyans consumed green leafy vegetables.
Over the last 15 years, vegetable consumption has remained stagnant at 100 to 130 grams per person per day, which is way below the recommended 400 grams of fruits and vegetables by the World health Organisation (WHO), despite a 46 per cent increase in the GDP.
The project targeting to reach 1.1million people by 2026 is being implemented in five counties of Nairobi, Kiambu, Machakos, Nakuru and Mombasa, and targets families with children aged 3 to 12 years in the lower income group.
Speaking during the launch of the program in Mikindani, Jomvu constituency, the Project manager Denis Abri said that the project is will be pushing for the ‘Food Fiti’ brand to encourage balance diet.
“We are promoting the Food Fiti brand that ensures there is access to fresh vegetables to consumers,”
“The program is focusing on demand whereby we are creating awareness to ensure consumers understand the need to consume fresh vegetables and we also have an enabling environment policy that relates to vegetable safety food standards,” said Abri.
GAIN is a Swiss-based foundation launched at the United Nations in 2002 to tackle the human suffering caused by malnutrition.
Working with governments, businesses and civil society, the organisation aims to transform food systems so that they deliver healthier diets for all people, especially the most vulnerable
Road campaign
To enable push the message further to wananchi, Abri said that they were working with tuktuk operators to brand their tuktuks so that the message can reach far and wide.
“Consumers tend to relate themselves more to brands, that’s why we are running the food fiti brand. We shall make use of other media channels like billboards too to push the brand,”
This he said calls for partnership with different stakeholders including the national and county governments to push for vegetable consumption.
The partnership between GAIN and the county government of Mombasa cuts across the departments of trade, health and agriculture.
The scope of work included pushing for safety standards through seminars and trainings and advocating for food safety.
“We currently have the Food safety policy in progress. Our call to action is that we eat more vegetables because they are cheap and reach in nutrients and equally we are able to increase our nutrition status. Taking vegetables helps us avoid many diseases,” he said.
Phyllis Kemoto, the Health officer, Jomvu Sub-county lauded the program saying it will help the county tackle malnutrition challenges especially in slum areas within Jomvu and Mombasa as a whole.
“From us (Mombasa County) we take consideration the nutrition aspect so that we encourage more consumption to fight malnutrition. Tuktuk is the common mode of transport in Mombasa so we felt that it is the best tool to push this campaign,” said Kemoto.
The program he said will soon be rolled out across the six subcounties of Nyali, Jomvu, Likoni, Mvita, Kisauni and Changamwe.
