Talking about change in innovation, there is a village far from the bustle of the city with all its conveniences and challenging terrain, with steep paths, paved tracks, cliffs, and ravines. However, the rows of kemiri trees provide beautiful and soothing views along the difficult roads. This village is Silaipui Village, South Alor District, Alor Regency, East Nusa Tenggara.

Silaipui Village consists of four hamlets with considerable distances between them and difficult terrain, shaping the people of Silaipui Village into hard workers. Their work depends on nature as most of them are farmers. In addition, their occupations include carpentry and livestock rearing. Besides being hardworking, the people of Silaipui Village are also cultured and religious. This is evident in the harmonious bonds of brotherhood and fellowship among them. In terms of human resources, many people in Silaipui Village are well-educated at the elementary, junior high, high school, and even college levels. This is certainly beneficial for their mindset and perspective on life's values, including the importance of caring for the lives of young children and pregnant women.

When it comes to caring for the lives of young children and pregnant women, Silaipui Village is one of the areas striving to improve family nutrition. This didn't happen by itself, as behind the success of improving family nutrition, there is the effort and struggle of dedicated women cadres who lovingly make innovations in local food processing, which are utilized at Integrated Health Service Posts (Posyandu). This is reflected in the changing data, showing a decrease in the number of young children categorized as stunted. According to data from Apui Public Health Center, in February 2021, there were 26 children categorized as stunted. However, in February 2023, weighing results showed that the number of stunted young children in Silaipui Village had decreased to 21. The story of local food processing innovation began when the women cadres of Silaipui Village attended a Local Food Processing and Traditional Medicine Training in South Alor District, on March 15-17, 2022.

After the activity, one of the women cadres from Hamlet 4 Kalangmana, Silaipui Village, named Mama Bety Sir, shared her positive experiences from the training and applied them at Posyandu. She started her story by saying, "We attended a local food training in South Alor District with speakers from Jogja who taught us about food menus made from local ingredients. After returning from the training, during the next Posyandu session, we started making pumpkin cakes to give to the children." Mama cadres continued to innovate the following month, using local foods from their surroundings to provide healthy meals for young children and pregnant women. The cadres processed cassava into cakes and various other dishes using taro and purple sweet potatoes. The cassava cakes were mixed with moringa leaves, which doctors and nurses had also tasted during Posyandu activities. "Among all the local food innovations, the children's favorite was the baby biscuits made from banana flour," said the women cadres cheerfully.

The story of the Mama cadres continued. She revealed a glimmer of hope, "We provide supplementary food (PMT) using local food every month, and even during village events, the cakes we make are from local food. To carry out PMT activities, we hope the government will implement programs that pay attention to local food innovations to support the improvement of young children’s and pregnant women’s health. However, we do not wait idly because we also collaborate with fellow cadres. We voluntarily collect local ingredients we have, as we have already gained knowledge from participating in local food processing training. If we do not act on it, it would be no different from those who did not attend the training."

"Children who attend Posyandu have also shown normal weight gain, because, besides receiving PMT at Posyandu, parents are also directed to pay attention to their children's nutrition while caring for them at home." This is how Mama Bety Sir, a cadre from Hamlet 4 Kalangmana, Silaipui Village, shared her story.

From the story of the women cadres, we learn that the Creator has provided good and useful things from the surrounding nature that can be managed with new and different innovations. Training and mentoring are needed to teach that local materials provided by nearby nature, which even become daily consumption, can be processed into something different, possibly in ways never imagined before.

Bananas, which are usually only made into fried bananas or chips, can also be turned into flour which is then processed into biscuits that children love. Ubi Keladi and cassava, which are usually only boiled for consumption, can be made into cakes. This indirectly reduces the habit of children consuming factory-made snacks. Innovation in Local Food Processing is a perfect solution to meet family nutritional needs.

With the innovation of local food utilisation in Posyandu activities as PMT, the women cadres have become increasingly motivated to continue and develop local food innovations at Posyandu. This can be seen as a change, where previously there was little distribution of PMT to young children and pregnant women. However, since the innovation of local food, PMT distribution has increased and is now done regularly every month. This activity has positively impacted the attendance of children at Posyandu, as the innovation of PMT from local food attracts the attention of both children and parents.

Let this story be a good lesson, so Posyandu becomes a health service place that is fun, healthy, and contributes to the betterment of the nation's children, free from undernutrition, malnutrition, and stunting.

(Soleman Molina)