When pinned down by a flu, people often turn towards health and nutrition to get better. For over a year now India and the entire world has been battling with the novel coronavirus. It’s taken a global pandemic crisis for people on this planet to shift their focus almost entirely towards efficient health management. After being blind-sided by COVID-19, the last twelve months have been nothing but a ride - right from national lockdowns, crumbling economy, loss of life, to hope, with the development of the vaccinations and implementation of nationwide vaccination drive, and to finally live in a mask-free and safe environment. Protein’ and ‘immunity’ quickly emerged as buzzwords only to further be actioned for better health management at a crucial time to begin this battle against the pandemic.

Solidaridad nutrition team organized a soy Food Festival on 30th Sep to promote soy food and its different recipy at one of the project villages Gunaga of Bhopal districts, Madhya Pradesh. Mr. Jeroen Douglas, Executive Director, Solidaridad Network, along with Mr. Bart De Jong-Consul General Consulate General of The Kingdom of Netherlands, Dr Nilay Ranjan, CSR Head, Vodafone Idea, Shatadru Chattopadhayay, Managing Director, Solidaridad Asia and Dr. Suresh Motwani-General Manager- Solidaridad participated in the festival.

Soy protein is a rich source of quality protein. The goodness of proteins in soybeans further helps growth, repairs tissue, builds muscle and renews cells. Balancing soy foods with vegetables would be a full-proof plan of increasing protein, thereby by receiving all essential amino acids and to finally boost immunity. It is more important now than ever to consider the role of protein in constantly strengthening immunity. The recipe competitions are organized for the women in the villages. The persons who cook the most nutritious variety from the soy processing and local ingredients are encouraged and felicitated with prizes. The whole objective is to make the people aware about the unique nutritional value of soy food and vegetables. The aim is also to equip families with the desire to eat more nutritious and healthy food and equip them with the knowledge of how to achieve it.13 women participated actively and prepared various soy food and vegetable recipes. Food Festival allots stalls that have innovative and nutritious dishes prepared by soy food like soya pudding, soya milk, soya pakoras, soy tofu, soy Momo etc.–the list is endless. Mrs. Jyoti Kushwaha was the 1st prize winner for her best recipe soy laddu with sugar and with jaggery. The event culminated with a vote of thanks by the nutrition team and with Soybean Cake Cutting Ceremony. Everybody likes a good cake prepared by soybean. Nutrition team thanked to all the senior management team, participants and organizer for showing keen interest in the food festival. All senior management team appreciates the program and shows pleasure to see the ground work of Solidaridad team at filed level.