The start of the month marked the start of National Nutrition Month for 2019. National Nutrition Month(NNM), is a health and social campaign promoted by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics(AND) during the entire month of March. The goals of the NNM campaign is to increase awareness of “. . . importance of making informed food choices and developing sound eating and physical activity habits.”. March also includes Registered Dietitian Nutritionist(RDN) Day on Wednesday, March 13 which celebrates RDN’s as the leading authorities on scientifically-based food and nutrition and dietary counseling. More information can be found at: www.eatright.org/food/resources/national-nutrition-month

Katie Tullio’s(MS, RDN, LDN) Social and Cultural Aspects of Food class celebrated NNM by holding a food drive in collaboration with Marywood’s Student Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (SAND). Non-perishable foods were collected throughout the month in boxes decorated by classmates, and found on the second floor of Keith J. O’Neill Center for Healthy Families. All food was donated to local food pantry for local disadvantaged individuals.

Each Social and Cultural Aspects of Food lab group was assigned a culture, and tasked to; decorate a collection box representing our culture, create a fact sheet about our culture and hunger in our area, and design several meals using MyPlate that were representative of the assigned culture, and spread the word about the food drive around campus, and between friends and family.

Lap group 1, consisting of Leighana Anolfo, Cristiana Laudisio, and Spencer King were assigned the country and culture of Ireland. As a group we raised 11 pounds of food, and as a class over 154 pounds of non-perishable food were collected! Additionally Dr. Diane Dellevalle has promised to match pound for pound the amount of food collected. This brings our total to over 300 pounds!

Overall, the food drive was a valuable project. Working to collect food for the needy brought a much needed focus on those less fortunate than us not just in our local community but around the world. Part of our job as future Registered Dietitian Nutritionist is to advocate for the health and nutrition of people around the world and work with social programs to ensure that impoverished people have access to proper nutrition during all of life’s stages.

• Article originally created for ND223 in the dept of Nutrition and Dietetics at Marywood University