A student organization in West Virginia University’s Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Design is hosting its first “Food Week” in honor of the upcoming Food Day on Oct. 24 to educate the community about eating and living well.
Student Association of Nutrition and Dietetics member Jess Brantner, a community nutrition graduate student in WVU’s Human Nutrition and Foods program, is among the students leading the Food Week effort.
“This is the first year that the association is organizing a week of activities around Food Day Oct. 24, and we want to educate the community about the real food that’s available to them and about good choices they can make,” Brantner said.
Activities will include:
• Monday, Oct. 21: “Pour One Out,” noon to 4 p.m., at the Towers PRT Station. Students are invited to trade a sugary drink for a bottle of water.
• Tuesday, Oct. 22: “Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead,” a documentary film, at 7 p.m., in Room 1001 of the Agricultural Sciences Building. The documentary film is free and open to the public, but attendees are encouraged to bring canned goods to support local food banks.
• Wednesday, Oct. 23: “Support Your Local Farmers Market,” 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the Evansdale Residential Complex basketball court. Locally grown produce will be available for sale.
• Thursday, Oct. 24: “Get Real, Eat Real Dinner,” 5 p.m., Blue and Gold Rooms at the Evansdale Residential Complex. The event will feature promoting real local food for free. The event is open to the public, but pre-registration is required and can be completed at http://wvu.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_eo03tzDpeeMw2IR.
“The Food Day dinner will highlight a mixture of local and seasonal ingredients within the menu,” Brantner explained. She said the group is cooking servings for about 100 people and is on a first-come, first-serve basis.
The purpose of the dinner is to highlight local food resources available on campus and in the Morgantown area.
“As a community, we really rely on the convenience of processed food, which can be full of sugar, salt, and fat,” Brantner said. “So, by making this dinner, we want to showcase to people that local food is here and it’s easier to get access to than most people think.”
• Friday, Oct. 25: The winner of the faculty pumpkin carving contest will be announced. Voting will be conducted all week in the lobby of the Agricultural Sciences Building.
• Also on Friday, Oct. 25: “Faculty SNAP Challenge.” WVU faculty members are invited to eat according to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program guidelines, sharing photos of their food purchases on the Human Nutrition and Foods Facebook page.
For more information on Food Week, contact Brantner at wvusand@gmail.com.
-WVU-
dw/10/17/13
CONTACT: David Welsh, Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Design
304.293.2394, David.Welsh@mail.wvu.edu
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