Infuse 5 September 2018 | Page 15

An Extraordinary
Experience for Dietitians
Fiona highlighted the diversity
of the skill set required for dietitians
involved in the Country Kitchens
program. Its dietitian facilitators worked
with over 80 local communities to
plan, develop/design and implement
nutrition promotion initiatives – all,
while travelling to regional, rural and
(sometimes very) remote communities.
Well received, by the 80 communities
that engaged in the Hands on Nutrition
Workshops! Like many of the QCWA
Branches engaged in the program, the QCWA
Charleville Branch leveraged the program
to build partnerships with community
stakeholders. These provided a platform for
the Charleville Facilitator to implement a
number of cooking and nutrition promotion
workshops with local schools, the school of
distance education and within surrounding
communities.
“We have created a unique nutrition
criteria we use to assess every recipe,
and taught our facilitators how to modify
recipes to ensure they are healthier,”
noted Fiona. “This has been very
successful, and the resultant cookbooks
demonstrate this behaviour change.”
How can dietitians get involved in
supporting the program?
Purchase your copy of the ‘In My Country
Kitchen’ cookbook – in hardcopy or eBook.
The Cookbook celebrates the very best
local produce Queensland has to offer in
recipes contributed by QCWA members from
across the state. All profits support QCWA to
continue to run community activities in their
local area. Also, get in touch with your local
QCWA branch; they may be running local
community health promotion activities and
could use your support in promotion, or share
your expertise at their community events.
Visit the QCWA website to find your
local branch.
The program has also developed many
skills for the dietitians in the first
three years. “Partnering with Monash
University to develop and implement a
research strategy enabled the team to
hone research and publishing skills,”
said Fiona, “with all abstracts accepted at
the last DAA conference -- importantly,
skills and knowledge development in
community capacity building. This quite
abstract term was studied with the team
developing readiness scales and markers
for each of the eight domains of health
promotion capacity as they related to
the country kitchens program. This is
developing the role of the dietitian into
that of community nutritionist or public
health nutritionist.”
What’s ahead for Country
Kitchens?
Our fabulous Country Kitchens Facilitators
will be continuing to support and
promote healthy behaviours in their local
communities. These activities range from
healthy catering, showcasing and cooking
demonstrations at local shows, organising
and coordinating health awareness days, and
hands-on nutrition workshops.
© Dietitian Connection
The second phase of the program
will look toward the environmental
determinants of health; importantly,
better understanding the existing
capacity for health promotion in
communities, and then building on that
through localised targeted strategies.
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Infuse | September 2018