Thousand words lined up describing the children who could not walk, think, and imagine elephants because of its lack of nutrition. Milk powder was the first disappeared due to civil war and if their parents were lucky enough to find it- the milk powder had changed color, infested with lice, and rancid-smell due to long delivery time. I had read “Totto-chan’s Children: A Goodwill Journey to the Children of the World” book written by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi during high school time. I have found out my pathway to be a food scientist: to make innovation in food and beverage for children.
During college, I attended fascinating classes related to food preservation, food chemistry, quality management, and so on. I seemed a bit know about food, but I need more. In 2018, I flew to Japan for an internship in Yoshitomo Co., Ltd. It was incredibly to grow fruit and herb using organic farming system and let the worm helped us to loosen the soil. In there, I also learned to make functional food- the complete package of nutritious, healthy, and delicious food. For instance products are kale chips, yacon syrup, and date palm-choco snack bar. I came to understand food for a sustainable and healthier lifestyle.
The next year, I had volunteered as a scout trainer in a small village, Gentungan, Indonesia. I felt the raw emotion of my student when he told me that his mother was sent abroad as a migrant worker to support his family’s finances. I met the local secretary to discover the potential commodity. He told me that rotten rambutan fruit highly polluted the village environment. I pursue a change. I made food training for all mothers in that village. I taught rambutan fruit processing with zero-waste principles. We produced flesh rambutan jam, rambutan’s rind tea, and rambutan’s core chips. I was entranced with tales of adventure had read by mother to his son today. That is priceless, food for a warm family.
It is a long journey, after all. I learn a great deal that food is never segmented. I seeing how everything is connected through food. Food is a weapon against illness, stupidity, environmental damage, misery, and many more. I would like to feed my curiosity to research, innovate, collaborate, and distribute healthy food from a sustainable farming system, as much as possible. That is my dream, food for all.