Smoothie Sale, Mac and Cheese Cook-Off, and Presentation by Dietitian
The Student Association of Nutrition and Dietetics (SAND) at Indiana University of Pennsylvania has organized a smoothie sale, a mac and cheese crockpot charity cook-off, and a program with a registered dietitian and certified personal trainer with experience in functional health training to celebrate National Nutrition Month in March.
This year’s theme for National Nutrition Month is “Food Connects Us.”
National Nutrition Month events begin with a smoothie sale on March 5 from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in the Hadley Union Building atrium. For $2, people can get a banana, coconut, and spinach smoothie.
The mac and cheese crockpot cook-off, which is open to the community, will be held March 19 from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. at the Hadley Union Building Monongahela Room. For a $2 donation, spectators may sample the entries and vote for a favorite.
All proceeds from the cook-off event will be donated to the IUP Food Pantry and Help Center, which provides food, toiletries, school supplies, and clothing items to IUP students in need.
Mikenna Farabaugh, from Emporium, is chair of IUP’s National Nutrition Month events; cochairs for the event are Sophia Letzo, from Johnstown, and Wyatt McKendree, from Bellwood. All three are nutrition-dietetics majors at IUP.
Entries from university and community groups and individuals are welcome; for information about how to enter the cook-off, persons should email McKendree at xqsdc@iup.edu or Letzo at ldzdc@iup.edu. The deadline for registering an entry into the cook-off is March 10. Each entry must include a whole grain or vegetable.
The final event for the month is a presentation by Registered and Licensed Dietitian Kara Goss, titled “How to Optimize Your Metabolism and Hormones Through Nutrition,” on March 27 at 4:00 p.m. in Jane Leonard Hall room 112, followed by a reception in Leonard room 113. This presentation is free and open to the community.
Goss is a functional registered dietitian and certified personal trainer with a focus on women’s health, fat loss, hormones, and nutrition. She is the founder of the Functional Fat Loss Academy, a virtual private practice that takes a holistic yet realistic approach to helping women improve their lifestyles.
SAND, which includes 35 undergraduate students at IUP, is supported by the Department of Allied and Public Health. The purpose of SAND is to provide members with professional involvement in food and nutrition activities as they develop their career potential.
The goals of the organization are to increase involvement in food and nutrition activities through educational and community experiences, provide peer mentoring and tutoring, serve as a liaison with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, and educate the community with current food and nutrition information, including through National Nutrition Month events.
As part of SAND’s goals to raise awareness about nutrition, the group will post fliers with nutrition factoids around campus.
In addition to the opportunity to be active with SAND, students in the major can gain hands-on, real-life experience helping IUP athletes optimize their nutrition through the IUP Sports Performance Nutrition Services or working in the IUP Nutrition Connection office, which provides free personalized nutrition counseling to the IUP campus and Indiana community.