UNIPMA – A group of students from the Elementary School (SD-B) class of the Pre-Service Teacher Professional Education Program (PPG) at Universitas PGRI Madiun (UNIPMA) organized a leadership project focused on community empowerment in Tambakmas, Kebonsari, Madiun, on Saturday (26/9). They introduced a food innovation made from moringa leaves, titled “KELORIN: Innovative Crispy Moringa to Enhance the Creativity and Productivity of PKK Women.”

This project was initiated based on the results of observations and interviews conducted by the student team in Tambakmas Village. Although the village has abundant potential in moringa plants, their utilization has so far been largely limited to simple dishes such as clear vegetable soup. Seeing this potential, the students innovated by processing moringa leaves into a crispy snack called Moringa Sticks, aiming to boost both the creativity and economic productivity of local residents.

This initiative received full support from the academic community. Dr. Heny Kusuma Widyaningrum, M.Pd., as the supervising lecturer, also expressed her hope that the project would be sustainable. “Hopefully, this collaboration can proceed as planned, achieve good results in the field, and meet expectations,” she said.

Meanwhile, Inin Ananta, the head of the project, explained in an interview that Tambakmas Village was selected because it was considered a suitable partner. “Tambakmas is an active village and aligns with the design of this leadership project,” she said.

The training and mentoring in making Moringa Sticks received a warm welcome from the local community. The women of the Tambakmas Village PKK showed great enthusiasm and gave positive responses throughout the activity.

Through this mentoring program, the PPG Pre-Service Elementary School Teacher Education (PGSD-B) team at UNIPMA hopes that the KELORIN program will continue to provide long-term benefits, particularly by increasing the knowledge and skills of PKK women in processing local potential into culinary products with market value.