Fraunhofer Center for Assistive Information and Communication Solutions – AICOSIn October two important dates are celebrated: the International Food Day (October 16th) and the International Day of Older People (October 21st). Fraunhofer Portugal decided to take the opportunity to celebrate both dates and organized, last October 30th, a Workshop for which it welcomed a group of 10 older adults.
One of the cooking session goals was to present the results achieved by the design process to the people involved. The agenda for the workshop consisted of 3 different slots:
- > Presentation of the project highlighting how users’ input was used in the project and the benefits of this approach;
- > Cooking session demonstrating the ChefMyself system;
- > Round-table to discuss issues of healthy eating in old age.
The menu for the afternoon was a “Cream carrot soup”, prepared by a researcher using the ChefMyself system. During the afternoon, the participants and researchers gathered in a round-table discussion where questions and doubts were explained. Older adults showed great curiosity about healthy eating and the truth concerning some “myths”, such as: “Does jam cut out the harmful effect of butter on bread?” These and other questions were answered in detail by a nutritionist and participants were sent the detailed answers by traditional mail, so that they can check the answers whenever they need to.
After a long discussion about eating habits, and when the tablet announced that the soup was ready, it was time to taste it!
The participants were given a photo of themselves at Fraunhofer and also a book with 7 easy and healthy recipes which they can try out at home. The recipes were kindly offered by Maria João Clavel, from the food blog Clavel’s Cook.