Silver Fourchette – national awareness program for the alimentation of seniors

Quality of Life

Fighting malnutrition: motivating senior citizens to eat nutritiously

Silver Fourchette (Silver Fork) started in 2014 after noticing the disastrous repercussions of malnutrition on the health of senior citizens. Indeed, it affects some two million people in France, and more than 38% of people entering retirement homes suffer from malnutrition. The project has three main aims: transforming eating into a true pleasure, not only a basic need – fostering healthy and pleasurable nutrition for senior citizens by turning meals into a creative and stimulating experience; promoting cooking for seniors – a gastronomy contest, workshops to cook together, training for chefs, a lab to innovate; bringing together all generations – allowing students in hotel management schools to discover what cooking for seniors is like, and getting everyone to savour the meals together. During 2015-2016, more than 320 events were organised during the gastronomy contest. In 2017 the project will make a fresh start with the Silver Fourchette Tour: it will target all seniors and launch collective prevention plans as well as local and departmental contests.