Untag Surabaya Students Provide Milkfish Noodle Training in Gumeng Village

There is something that always captures my attention whenever I travel through the coastal villages on the northern coast of Java: abundance standing side by side with limitation. Fish ponds stretch far and wide, brackish water flows calmly, and every morning fishermen return with bountiful catches. Yet behind this seemingly prosperous scene, a problem often lies hidden that is rarely acknowledged: abundant natural resources do not always translate proportionally into the welfare felt by the local community. Gumeng Village, located in Bungah District, Gresik Regency, is one real portrait of this situation.

Milkfish is a commodity deeply tied to this village’s identity. Milkfish ponds sprawl across the area, and their harvest is one of the residents’ main sources of livelihood. Ironically, however, for years this great potential has been utilised in the same few ways: sold raw, smoked, or simply fried. The added value that ought to be derived from these pond harvests has barely been touched by innovation. This is the real issue at hand — not a scarcity of resources, but how abundant resources are processed, developed, and ultimately made to deliver broader benefits to the community.

When I followed the community service programme titled “Training in Making Milkfish Noodles as an Innovative, Nutritious and Economically Valuable Food Product”, held from 6 to 17 July 2026 in Gumeng Village, I saw a small yet deeply meaningful effort to answer that problem. The activity was initiated by student Nur Afni Latansya under the supervision of Field Supervising Lecturer Dia Puspitasari, S.Sos., M.Si., M.Ikom, in cooperation with PKK POKJA 3 of Gumeng Village. At first glance, this is merely a simple culinary training session. But examined more closely, the activity touches on a far more fundamental issue: how local potential can be transformed into solutions for nutrition, economic, and women’s empowerment problems at the village level.

Milkfish: A Commodity Not Yet Optimally Utilised

Speaking of milkfish, we are really speaking of one of the best animal protein sources possessed by Indonesia’s coastal communities. The fish is rich in omega-3, protein, calcium, and various essential minerals needed by the body, particularly to support children’s growth and development. Unfortunately, this immense nutritional potential is often not matched by adequate consumption, especially among children. Two classic problems always arise: troublesome bones and a fishy smell that often puts children off eating it.

This phenomenon is not merely an ordinary household complaint. It is closely linked to the community’s overall nutritional consumption patterns. When a protein source that is abundantly available in the surrounding environment is not optimally consumed because of such technical obstacles, the result is wasted potential. In fact, upon closer examination, the root of many nutritional problems in coastal areas is not the absence of nutritious foodstuffs, but rather how those foodstuffs are processed so they are more readily accepted, especially by children, the group most vulnerable to malnutrition.

This is where the relevance of the milkfish noodle innovation becomes strikingly apparent. By processing milkfish flesh into noodle dough, two main problems are solved at once: the bones that usually make milkfish daunting disappear entirely because the flesh is finely ground, whilst the fishy smell can be minimised through proper processing techniques and the addition of suitable seasonings. The resulting product becomes far more child-friendly without diminishing its nutritional content. This is not merely a culinary trick, but a clever strategy to bridge the gap between the availability of nutritious food and its level of consumption in society.

Food Innovation as an Answer to Nutrition and Stunting Problems

We cannot discuss nutrition issues in coastal communities without touching on stunting, which remains a major national challenge. Stunting is not simply a matter of insufficient food intake, but is more often caused by inappropriate nutritional consumption patterns during children’s golden growth period. Many parents in villages actually have access to nutritious foodstuffs such as fish, yet their children refuse to eat them because of texture, taste, or unappealing presentation.

Given this reality, I hold the view that food innovations such as milkfish noodles play a strategic role that is often overlooked in large-scale stunting prevention programmes. Government programmes tend to focus on supplement distribution or formal nutrition education, whereas approaches that directly touch everyday eating habits through food product innovation can have a more grounded and sustainable impact. Children will not refuse noodles, a food synonymous with their tastes, whilst hidden inside is the protein and nutrition of milkfish that they consume without realising it. Such an approach, in my view, is far more realistic and applicable than merely urging people to drastically change their diets.

PKK as the Driving Engine of Family Economic Empowerment

One interesting aspect of this activity is the choice of implementing partner: PKK POKJA 3 of Gumeng Village. Not without reason, for PKK has proven to be one of the most effective community organisations in reaching households down to the most basic level. PKK women are not merely training participants, but key actors who will pass this knowledge and these skills on to their own families, and potentially spread them to neighbours and relatives around them.

Family economic empowerment often begins from small points like this — simple skills given to housewives, which then develop into home businesses and expand into productive economic units supporting the family economy. I see this pattern as part of an empowerment strategy far more realistic than top-down economic empowerment programmes that often fail to address problems at the household level. When a mother is given the skill to process milkfish into noodles with commercial value, she is not merely learning a new recipe; she is opening a path towards becoming an economically independent actor.

Skills Training Based on Local Potential: Why It Matters

One mistake frequently made in community empowerment programmes is introducing skills irrelevant to the local area’s potential. Much training teaches skills whose raw materials must be brought in from outside the region, making them difficult to sustain because communities must depend on external supplies.

The milkfish noodle training in Gumeng Village takes a different path and, in my view, one far better targeted. Its main raw material, milkfish, is a commodity abundantly available in the village itself. This means the skills taught can genuinely be practised sustainably without supply constraints. This is the true fundamental principle of community empowerment: harnessing what is already possessed, not forcing something foreign onto the local context. A locally based approach like this is far more likely to endure, because the community need not depend on external factors beyond their control.

Household Business Opportunities and the Product’s Economic Value

From an economic perspective, processed products such as milkfish noodles have genuinely promising market opportunities. Indonesians’ consumption of noodles is deeply rooted, yet awareness of the importance of nutritional content in daily food is also rising, particularly among young urban families who are increasingly selective about their children’s food. Fish-based noodles, with their high protein content and distinctive flavour, have considerable room to penetrate that market, both at the local village scale and more widely through digital platforms.

This added value is often unrealised by village communities. Milkfish usually sold relatively cheaply in raw form can command a selling price many times higher when processed into a value-added noodle product. This is the essence of micro-scale downstream processing of agricultural and fishery products — a concept often trumpeted in national economic policy, yet rarely reaching down to the household level in villages. Through training like this, the grand concept of downstream integration is translated into concrete practice whose benefits can be directly felt by the community.

The Role of Students and Universities in Village Empowerment

I would also like to highlight the role of students and universities in activities like this. Community service programmes are often looked down upon, regarded as mere academic formalities students must fulfil to complete their studies. But seeing how this activity was designed under the guidance of a field supervising lecturer and implemented directly with a village partner, I see something far more substantive than a mere formality.

Students bring fresh perspectives, technical knowledge of food processing, and a spirit of innovation into village communities. Meanwhile, villagers possess local wisdom and deep understanding of their own region’s potential. When these two meet, a productive synergy is created. Universities, through their students, bear a moral responsibility to come down and address real problems in society, rather than merely grappling with theory in the classroom. The activity in Gumeng Village is concrete proof that synergy between academia and village communities can produce applicable solutions with direct impact.

The Challenge of Sustainability: Homework That Must Not Be Ignored

Yet, honestly, I also wish to raise a critical note. Training like this, however well conceived, loses its meaning if not followed by sustainability after the programme ends. Many community service activities stop at the training stage, without continued mentoring to ensure the skills imparted are genuinely applied and developed by the community.

The big question that must continue to be monitored is: after 17 July 2026, when this service programme ends, will the PKK women of Gumeng Village continue producing milkfish noodles independently? Will there be follow-up mentoring on marketing, packaging, and home business licensing? Technical issues like these often become stumbling blocks that turn good innovations into nothing more than a fond training memory without long-term impact.

In my view, the role of the village government, relevant agencies, and universities should not stop at the training moment alone. A sustained mentoring mechanism is needed, whether in the form of business group coaching, facilitation of market access, or support for home food product licensing. Without such continuity, however good the innovation produced, its impact will be limited to the duration of the programme.

Reflection: When Milkfish Teaches Us the Meaning of Innovation

Reflecting further on this activity, I found a lesson that is simple yet profound in meaning. We often imagine innovation as something complicated, requiring sophisticated technology or large capital. But what happened in Gumeng Village shows the opposite. True innovation is born from the astuteness of seeing everyday problems that appear trivial, then responding with creative, applicable solutions.

Milkfish, long regarded merely as an ordinary commodity, when touched with a little creativity and food processing knowledge, is transformed into a product with more accessible nutritional value and far higher economic worth. This taught me that village development potential does not always need to be sought from outside, for often it is right before our eyes, merely waiting to be processed in the right way.

I also saw how great the role of women, in this case the PKK mothers, is as the spearhead of change at the household level. When village women are given skills and the confidence to process local potential into economically valuable products, the impact is felt not only financially, but also strengthens their position as agents of change within families and communities. This is a form of empowerment far more substantive than simply providing consumptive assistance.

Closing: Village Development Begins with Simple Things

In the end, the milkfish noodle training activity in Gumeng Village reminds us of a truth often forgotten: village development does not always require high technology, large investment, or massive projects. Meaningful development can begin with small steps that optimise the local potential communities already possess.

Milkfish noodles are not merely a new culinary product. They are a symbol of a worldview that prosperity can be built from materials already in one’s own backyard, provided they are processed with creativity, perseverance, and a willingness to learn something new. They are proof that children’s nutrition problems can be solved not with complex large programmes, but with a simple touch of innovation on everyday food. They are also a concrete example of how synergy between students, supervising lecturers, and community organisations such as PKK can produce impact far exceeding the programme’s duration, provided its sustainability is jointly safeguarded.

I believe that if this spirit continues to be nurtured and replicated in other villages with similar potential, it is entirely possible we will see more coastal villages able to transform their pond harvests into high-value products while solving their own communities’ nutrition problems. From Gumeng Village, we learn that a healthier and more prosperous village future can genuinely begin with something as simple as a bowl of milkfish noodles.