Caritas India fights malnutrition through community food model  

NEW DELHI (Indian Catholic News) — Caritas India’s community-led food and nutrition model is tackling persistent malnutrition in rural communities through adaptive agriculture, local food diversity, volunteer engagement, and multi-stakeholder partnerships across smallholder farming networks.  

In developing nations, undernutrition presents a severe challenge. “There is a high prevalence of undernutrition (protein-energy malnutrition, and micronutrient deficiencies), which is most critical in the fetal and neonatal stages, as well as the under 5-year-old age group,” said Father Paul Moonjely, former Executive Director of Caritas India who initiated the Community-Led Food & Nutrition Model study.  

To address these systemic issues, the Smallholder Adaptive Farming and Biodiversity Network (SAFBIN), a flagship initiative of Caritas India, has spearheaded a community-managed approach. “This model has successfully ensured balanced diet to more than 756 families with diverse range of local food items,” Father Moonjely noted.  

Addressing rural malnutrition challenges 

The initiative focuses heavily on rural regions in Madhya Pradesh state, northern India, including the Sagar and Mandla districts, where health indicators remain concerning. In Sagar, 39.7% of children under 5 years are stunted, while 67.8% aged 6–59 months suffer from anaemia. In Mandla, 75.7% of pregnant women aged 15–49 are anaemic.  

The SAFBIN program implemented 14 key actions to establish localized solutions. Central to this approach was volunteer identification at the hamlet level. “A total of 60 volunteers were engaged in coordination with local health workers and SAFBIN team in Sagar and Mandla districts,” the program report revealed.

“Since majority of the beneficiaries are belongs to pregnant women, lactating mothers, and mother of 0-5yrs children, community decided to have women/girl volunteers right at the hamlet level,” it added.  

These volunteers conduct assessments, monitor health indicators, and organize meetings to bypass geographic and social barriers.

“Due to geographical remoteness and limited to proper network connectivity, families face many difficulties in availing facilities available by the local government,” the report noted, adding that hamlet-level teams provide necessary “accompaniment support at the right time”.  

Utilizing uncultivated and local foods 

To build dietary resilience, the project prioritized indigenous food resources over imported solutions. Program teams “prepared a list of 41 locally grown traditional food items” alongside “12 uncultivated fruits” such as jackfruit, wood apple, and karonda — a nutrient-dense indigenous berry rich in iron and vitamin C. 

Furthermore,t he study adds that 13 types of local vegetables were proposed to include in backyard kitchen garden kit, which led to the creation of specialized nutrition gardens with 1,306 farming households to ensure fresh produce remains within reach.

A 15-day “positive deviance hearth” program was also conducted, providing hands-on peer education where “mothers will be taught and trained to weigh their children” and cook meals with “minimum nutrition loss”.  

Achieving sustainable multi-stakeholder impact 

The community-led framework integrates micro-level family practices, meso-level physical environments, and macro-level policy advocacy. Local health departments have recognized the framework’s success, integrating it directly into government planning.

“The District Health Department, Sagar has replicated the innovative community-led food and nutrition model in eight adjacent gram panchayats (elected village councils) to ensure adequate service deliveries to more than 500 vulnerable families,” according to project documentation.  

As a result of these efforts, “community has now adopted nutritional dietary diversity (85-90%) as a result of adaption of homestead,” while evaluation metrics show that participating smallholder farmers “are consuming balance diet around the year compared to previous status the increase is approximately 129%”.  

Ultimately, the SAFBIN report concludes that addressing rural hunger requires looking beyond high-input industrial farming to tap into indigenous biodiversity, local knowledge, and community leadership. By empowering women, integrating local healthcare channels, and promoting native foods, Caritas India has established what organizers describe as a scalable blueprint for food sovereignty.

According to project evaluations, the model demonstrates that when smallholder families gain ownership over their local food systems, vulnerable communities can build lasting resilience against climate challenges and persistent malnutrition. 

Read the full report.