FOOD COMMUNITIES

ABSTRACT

Background: In recent years the focus on healthy food and lifestyle has become a more important part of everyday life for many-with or without RMD. Many NGO-initiatives engaging citizens cooking and eating together has seen the light of day;people meet to talk, laugh and have a good time while making a healthy meal. The kitchen is an often discussed topic among the volunteers and members of The Danish Rheumatism Association. 'Simple' tasks as opening a can of beans or cutting bread can be complicated for people with RMDs. The fundamentals of cooking are different for this group of people;hence the idea of communities around 'arthritis friendly' food unfolded during fall 2019. Objectives: The main objective is to create 'food communities' for people with RMDs, helping them to get a better understanding of how to make 'arthritis friendly food', dispel the myth that it is expensive and hard, and to give them inspiration to better working positions with assistive devices-resulting in a healthier lifestyle which is important to keep the infammation low and the quality of life high. Methods: To obtain these objectives, a dietitian is facilitating 6 three hour 'courses' guiding the participants through healthy cooking-each course with a different theme/subject which is introduced through a short presentation. Two volunteers are responsible for booking kitchen facilities (often school kitchens which is free of charge), coordination with the dietitian and making sure everything runs smoothly and that the atmosphere is top-notch. An occupational therapist is joining the group one time to ensure optimal working positions and introducing and demonstrating assistive devices. One of our main goals is to create sustainable and longer lasting (more than 6 facilitated courses) communities, which is why an important part of the volunteer's responsibility is to initiate a talk about the opportunity of meeting without a dietitian. The 6 facilitated courses aim to give the group the ability to fnd recipes (provided by DRA) and being comfortable cooking with ingredients that the average Dane might not use very often. Furthermore, our assumption is that the group creates social bonds and therefore an interest in keeping these relations. Results: About twenty groups all around Denmark has been a part of the course so far. The feedback from the participants is extremely good-they feel they are learning in an inspiring environment while having a great time with their new acquaintances. Unfortunately, only one of the groups has become a community that exists after the facilitated courses. One of the reasons is, without a doubt, that most of the groups have been affected by different Covid-19 restrictions which has had an impact on the level of social bonding and feeling of ownership. But most participants feel that the dietitian is crucial for further engagement. Conclusion: The concept has been very successful in terms of creating a course that imparts useful knowledge about 'arthritis friendly' food and lifestyle for people with RMD's. It seems we need to make corrections to create the basis for sustainable communities;small changes that helps the group visualizing how to overcome the challenge of the absence of a dietitian, the logistics of grocery shopping for a group etc. We plan to leave out the dietitian from the ffth of the six courses to prepare the group to establish their own 'food community' with lots of healthy food, learning experiences and high spirit.