UNAIR NEWS – The abundance of Aloe vera on the southern tip of East Java, Trenggalek, successfully utilized by five students of  Universitas Airlangga. By relying on the participation of a group of housewives, they have successfully processed aloe vera into brownies and crackers.
The five students are Rica Naudita Krisna Setioningrum, Kartini, Novia Yudiasari, Zsafidda Afa Mahardika, and Anak Agung Wantini. They are incorporated in the team of Student Creativity Program-Community Service entitled “K2P (Food Security Creativity) Utilization of Aloevera to Train Trenggalek People on Entrepreneurship”.
The proposal passed the funding selection from the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education in 2017.
In the implementation, they targeted members of the Family Welfare Development group (PKK) in Tumpuk Village, Tugu Sub-district, Trenggalek.
“We gave questionnaires to housewives about the potential of aloe vera to be used as food products. From the questionnaires, it turns out many of the respondents do not know about the benefits of Aloe vera to be a food product when the village is potential as the plants are abundant, ” said Rica.
After the results of the questionnaires are known, they invited local PKK group to attend entrepreneurship training. The five students of the Faculty of Public Health is educating cadres from PKK groups to become entrepreneurs of this entrepreneurship program.
In order to establish a sustainable business, PKK members are invited to go through applying the program stages of creativity and food security. Namely, go plant , go process product , and go market .
At the go plant stage , PKK members are taught how to plant and care for aloe vera. Then continued to the stage go process product, PKK members are taught to process aloe vera into brownies and crackers. At the marketing stage or go market , target groups are taught to market their products through social media, including offline .
“We apply the K2P program for three months, starting from planting aloe vera on the land near the village hall as well as practicing cooking demos of brownies and aloe vera crackers. We also provide processed aloe vera recipes to increase the creativity of PKK mothers as well as teach them how to cook hygienically, “added Rica.
Processed aloe vera is called Broalek (Brownies Aloevera Trenggalek) and KAT (Crackers Aloevera Trenggalek). Hopefully, Broalek and KAT can be used as souvenirs of Trenggalek, especially when the area bordering the Indian Ocean has interesting tourist destinations.
Editor: Defrina Sukma S
