The starting point of this project is to respond to a societal issue. Indeed, the demographic ageing of the European Union is a trend that has been observed in Europe for decades. At the same time, healthy life expectancy is low (64.2 years for women and 63.5 years for men). The objective of our project is therefore to respond to this societal challenge, with two target audiences: senior citizens over 60 years of age and their close (non-professional) caregivers. With this in mind, our project includes 4 intellectual outputs: a framework of knowledge and skills in terms of healthy and enjoyable food for seniors, a recipe book for seniors, a training manual for their caregivers and an advocacy of seniors’ healthy and enjoyable food. This transnational Strategic Partnership project involves 5 organisations from 3 Member States (France, Belgium and Portugal) including field organisations, a national federation of associations and a European think & do tank. Project of the association GROUPE SOS Seniors, Silver Fourchette (France) is the candidate organisation. Silver Fourchette is committed to field actions and goes to meet seniors and those who accompany them to propose concrete, educational and positive actions around eating well, and give them the keys to act on health. UNA 47 (France) : A non-profit association is a national federation of 30 associations providing home care and services. Bras dessus Bras dessous (Belgium) : A field organisation specialised in happy ageing at home, Bras dessus Bras dessous fights against the loneliness of isolated elderly people by relying on the solidarity of the neighbourhood. Pour La Solidarité (Belgium) : As a recognised European think & do tank, social inclusion issues have always been at the heart of Pour La Solidarité's priorities. Thanks to an interdisciplinary team, Pour La Solidarité is an expert in the field of home care services as well as food. Obra Diocesana de Promoção Social (Portugal) : A private social solidarity institution based in Porto, the Obra Diocesana de Promoção Social offers various forms of social action to its beneficiaries (day centre, home care services for the elderly, etc.). Each of the partners will bring their know-how to the intellectual outputs and to each stage of the project. The framework will make it possible to gather the knowledge and skills needed by (non-professional) caregivers in terms of nutrition for European seniors. It will include a comparative analysis of the 3 partner countries. The recipe book will give European seniors access to concrete and practical advice enabling them to play an active role in their own health thanks to specific recipes for seniors over 60 years of age. It will be accessible to all budgets and will highlight the principles of sustainable food. The training manual will help caregivers to understand the specifics of nutrition for seniors. Finally, through our advocacy we will promote a "healthy and enjoyable" diet for seniors and will help change the way we look at old age and enhance the role of (non-professional) caregivers. In order to achieve these objectives, we have thought of a chronology so that the intellectual outputs are enriched and respond to each other, which will ensure the coherence of the whole. The productions will be guided and validated by our experts in each field but also tested by panels in the 3 European countries, which will allow feedback from the field and ensure the quality and practical usefulness of our deliverables. Impacts are expected at local, regional, national, European and international levels. Both on the participating organisations (knowledge on healthy and enjoyable food for seniors, caregivers' needs, new tools to enhance the quality of their support, etc.), on non-professional caregivers (data on caregivers in Europe and their role, taking into account their needs in terms of support for seniors, etc.) but also on seniors (needs and desires in terms of food, the impact of food on the environment, etc.). Our partners will have the opportunity to use the tools created during the project to strengthen their knowledge of healthy and enjoyable eating for seniors and the needs of non-professional caregivers and to disseminate these tools to their beneficiaries. The partners will ensure, after European funding, a wide dissemination of the project, both internally and externally. Exchanges will be maintained between the different partners in order to evaluate together the means to be implemented to think together about a new project in the continuity of this project.
The Eat@Home project has been elaborated to bring a concrete and inclusive solution to tackle two main societal issues: the demographic ageing of the European Union population and the insufficient level of health span in its countries. The main aim of this project is to address the needs of people aged over 60 and their carers in order to improve their understanding of the positive impact of a proper nutrition over the health and autonomy of people. Yet, recommendations regarding nutrition are numerous, sometimes contradictory and can easily become a source of anxiety. We’ve decided to build an innovative approach by promoting a positive vision of nutrition which reconciles health and pleasure in order to foster a more efficient and long-term change of food habits among our beneficiaries. To strengthen health promotion and disease prevention policies in Europe, we wanted to : - Build a common ground to promote the positive effects of a nutrition reconciling health and pleasure - Bridge the gap between the different approaches in Europe - Empower the beneficiaries (both seniors and their carers) to take control of their own health through their nutrition - Change the global perception of ageing and of the status of carer
19,7% of the 512,4 million Europeans are over-65 years old (2018, EU-28). This represents a 2,6% raise since 2008. But demographic ageing isn’t a new trend in the EU, it has been going on for decades and should continue so up until the global European population reaches the bar of 525 million people by 2040 (Eurostat). Those forecasts also indicate that the population is going to grow older, as 31,3% of the European population are to be aged 65 years or over by 2100 (with a special focus on the over-80 population growing from 5,6% to 14,6% between 2018 and 2100). In addition, it remains a gap between life span and health span (83,2 vs 64,2 for women and 78,2 vs 63,5 for men – INSEE & EU – 28) in Europe. It is critical to improve health span by working on lifelong key health factors, thus allowing European people to age better and live longer at home, independently and in good shape. Because nutrition is one of the three main levers to activate to do so, we decided to create the Eat@Home project to tackle those 2 challenges by empowering 2 key targets : over-60-years-old people and their carers.