The Norwegian Dietetic Association

Our Association was founded on 17th June 1948, at a meeting of chefs at “Rikshospitalet” in Oslo. We started with 63 members and two years later, at the first convention, this had increased to 81 members. Today we have approximately 1,500 members, mostly female, made up of administrative dietitians, chefs, healthcare cooks, assistants and some students.

The main goals of the Association were to create a standardised education for chefs, to work for better salaries for our members, and to provide information on new developments and practices within the profession.

The President of NDA is elected by the members for a term of three years. The permanent members of staff are an office manager, part-time secretary and the editor of our magazine, ‘Kjøkkenskriveren’. International Delegates of the NDA are recruited from within the organisation and attend conferences etc. in their spare time.

‘Kjøkkenskriveren’ is published seven times a year and has a circulation of 2500. It contains articles about our profession and current issues of interest to our members. The magazine now has it’s own website, which went live in October 2007: www.kjøkkenskriveren.no. The Association’s website can be found at: www.matomsorg.no.

Our Association has a total of 18 Branch Offices, covering the whole of Norway. The leaders of the branch offices come together once a year at a meeting convened by our Head Office. It is important for them to meet, to discuss and to get professional guidance.

Since 1994, we have organised the ‘Norwegian Championship for Institutional Catering Cooks’. This is held annually, in August, in the town of Ålesund. The aim of the championship is to achieve a positive focus on our occupational group.

In 2006, we presented our first ‘Foodcare’ prize, in collaboration with ‘Horeca’, a magazine for hotel, restaurant, cafe, catering, canteen and institutional cooks, the intention being to motivate employees in Norwegian food-care to contribute to the re-thinking of current practices, and to encourage high quality for the whole profession.

At our Convention, held this year in April, the NDA changed its Norwegian name to be ‘Kost- og ernæringsforbundet’ the same name as the Danish organisation. We also elected new members to our Board, bringing the number of members to five, including the President. The Board members come from all parts of Norway and we meet several times a year for management and strategic planning.

The resolution for our Strategic Plan 2007-2010, made at our convention, is the basis for our future actions and activities. Our main goals are still focused on professional food and nutrition issues, enhancing the image of the profession, education and better working practices, and improving the salary and conditions for our members. Another important task for the secretariat is to provide courses and seminars for our members and other interested parties. We also seek to gain influence with various authorities to promote better healthcare, and the interests of our organisation and of our members. Finally, national and international representation is very important for us. We cannot stay alone.

Main national and international
memberships and collaborations:

• Norwegian Nutrition Society
• Northern Association
• European Federation of the Associations
  of Dietitians (EFAD), www.efad.org
• Healthcare Caterers International
• International Confederation of Dietetic
  Associations (ICDA), www.internationaldietetics.org

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