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Energy and Nutrient Evaluation of Foods Served in Turkish Red Crescent Field Kitchens after the Kahramanmaraş Earthquake

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2025

Cüneyt Çalışkan Open the ORCID record for Cüneyt Çalışkan [Opens in a new window] ,
Yasemin Tuğba Öğünç Open the ORCID record for Yasemin Tuğba Öğünç [Opens in a new window] ,
Kerem Kınık Open the ORCID record for Kerem Kınık [Opens in a new window] ,
Nihal Dağ Open the ORCID record for Nihal Dağ [Opens in a new window]  and
Muhammed Burkay Durak Open the ORCID record for Muhammed Burkay Durak [Opens in a new window]
Cüneyt Çalışkan*
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency Aid and Disaster Management, Hamidiye Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Health Sciences, Istanbul, Türkiye
Yasemin Tuğba Öğünç
Affiliation:
Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Hamidiye Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Health Sciences, Istanbul, Türkiye
Kerem Kınık
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency Aid and Disaster Management, Hamidiye Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Health Sciences, Istanbul, Türkiye
Nihal Dağ
Affiliation:
Department of Disaster Medicine, Hamidiye Institute of Health Sciences, University of Health Sciences, Istanbul, Türkiye
Muhammed Burkay Durak
Affiliation:
Turkish Red Crescent Education Director, Ankara, Türkiye.
*
Corresponding author: Cüneyt Çalışkan; Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Objective

After the Kahramanmaraş earthquakes, the study aimed to assess the nutritional quality, energy, and macronutrient content of meals from field kitchens, evaluating their capacity to meet recommended daily intakes in the region.

Methods

The contents of morning, lunch, and evening meals prepared by the Turkish Red Crescent in field kitchens in 10 provinces were collected on the second day of the earthquake and 3 times at 1-month intervals: February 7, March 7, and April 7.

Results

During the Kahramanmaraş earthquakes, 570 public institutions and/or non-governmental organizations provided food assistance at 2.342 assembly points in 10 provinces on February 7, March 7, and April 7. In the aftermath of the Kahramanmaraş earthquakes, the Turkish Red Crescent provided meals to over 4.8 million people at 10 different locations for a period of 3 days. Starting from the second day after the earthquake (February 7), when food services were regularly recorded at nutrition service points, the percentages of macronutrients covering total energy were found to be within the normal range.

Conclusions

To promote the health of disaster survivors, it is important to improve the balanced RDAs for energy and macronutrients and ensure compliance with national dietary guidelines.

Keywords

earthquakeenergyfoodfood aidnutrient
Type
Brief Report
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 19 , 2025 , e58
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc

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Footnotes

The submitted article is not published elsewhere and is not evaluated by any other publication.

This article was produced from the thesis work.

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