Strengthens partnerships, online resources to promote Sarap Sustansya cooking
MAGGI capped its Nutrition Month celebration in July with new milestones in its advocacy towards empowering home cooks to prepare healthy and tasty meals for the family. MAGGI’s campaign expanded to include a joint initiative with the Department of Education (DepEd) that focused on enhancing the role of youth in their family’s well-being; and ongoing support for the Urban Farming program of Department of Agriculture (DA) to introduce urban gardening for more sustainable food sourcing. Meanwhile, MAGGI’s online tools and resources continue to support families in preparing nutritious and delicious meals every day.
Youth as confident cooks and meal planners
With DepEd, MAGGI successfully concluded its first-ever Sarap Sustansya Virtual Inter-School Cooking Competition across the National Capital Region (NCR). 120 schoolchildren between grades 7 and 12, along with their teachers and parents, were able to prepare economical yet nutritionally-balanced meals for their family by watching MAGGI Sarap Sustansya Kusinaskwela modules on YouTube. Regional champion Manuel Luis Quezon High School in the Manila Division bested 200 public junior and senior high schools in NCR.
“The teachers, students and parents saw first-hand that good nutrition and great taste can go together, even on a tight budget,” said Rosalyn Simba, Business Executive Officer – Food and Dairy Culinary Business Unit at Nestlé Philippines. “Their feedback on how much they learned from the MAGGI Sarap Sustansya Kusinaskwela modules strengthens our resolve to continuously improve our digital recipe services, and pursue more meaningful collaborations with like-minded partners who love to see Filipino families eat healthy.”
Edible gardens for healthier families
With the help of the DA, MAGGI established the Sarap Sustansya Garden to inspire families to start their own edible garden at home. Located at the Nestlé Lipa Integrated Coffee Center (LICC), the MAGGI Sarap Sustansya Garden promotes vegetable cultivation, the repurposing of food waste as compost, and the use of fresh vegetables as a key ingredient in daily meals. With the expertise of the Bureau of Plant Industry, MAGGI conducted a free planting workshop on its Facebook page to teach homecooks the first steps in vegetable-planting, as well as a cooking demo with Chef Erik Magtanong to help families make appetizing vegetable dishes.
“By planting vegetables at home, MAGGI believes families will gain easy access to fresh and healthy ingredients they can cook and eat anytime,” said Simba. “Not only will families be able to maximize their food budget, but they also benefit from a vegetable-rich diet!”
The last and most vital component in MAGGI’s Sarap Sustansya campaign is its recipe services, which provide tips and nutrition guides that are always available on MAGGI’s website, Facebook page and YouTube channel.
The MAGGI Philippines website, for example, contains over 500 recipes that suit various types of homecooks, from the first-timer to the aspiring chef. Moms who need a quick meal can get recipes that are ready in as fast as 15 minutes, while those creating a special menu can select from 19 different cuisines. Bonus features include information on nutritional value for each dish, and ingredient quantities that adjust automatically as the number of servings are modified.
Meanwhile, MAGGI’s YouTube channel has a growing playlist featuring cooking hacks and other useful tips to make moms more kitchen-savvy. It has an online class on cooking healthy and delicious meals that can be found in 16 videos under the MAGGI Sarap Sustansya Kusineskwela series. With over 4.4 million views, Kusinaskwela serves as an instructional guide to planning meals based on the Pinggang Pinoy model developed by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute under the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), budgeting and marketing techniques to keep meals cost-effective, and best-known methods in cooking that maximize ingredients, save time, and bring out flavor.
Additional online resources are also available through MAGGI’s Facebook page, where close to 18 million followers discover new meal ideas, watch live cooking sessions with Chef Erik Magtanong and even download free recipe books. Followers can type in any cooking question on the Tita MAGGI Chatbot, their always-on Sarap Sustansya culinary assistant, or search for specific recipes and provide ideas on dishes using ingredients they may have onhand.
“MAGGI invested heavily in these online resources to enable moms and other home cooks have more enjoyable family meal times,” Simba said. “We carefully develop compelling content and services that enrich families’ skills in the kitchen, the place where good eating habits begin.”
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