Eat Well

Feed your Success

Mission: Supporting TWU students to be well-nourished and more skilled at making healthier eating choices. We support holistic approaches to eating well with attention to social justice, the environment, and meeting the unique needs of each student.

Why is Eat Well important to our health and wellbeing?

When we eat healthy, sustainable food, we feed our minds, bodies, and spirits and, in doing so, we increase academic success and success in life. Thriving requires reliable access to food and the knowledge and skills to make healthier eating choices.

Highlights

  • TWU has published multiple articles discussing food insecurity on college campuses:
  • The Vandagriff Scholar program has evolved into a program called A Nourishing Space. It includes undergraduate and graduate positions. In addition, undergraduate nutrition and health studies student volunteers are receiving training through the program to provide nutrition consultations and health coaching to their student peers in-person on the Denton campus and online to serve the Denton, Dallas, and Houston campuses.
  • Student Life-Houston, through the collaborative efforts of Deborah Unruh and Dr. Carolyn Moore, have partnered with the Houston Area Food Bank to provide eligible food-insecure students food deliveries through the Food Scholarship Program.
  • The Campus Alliance for Resource Education Department (CARE) provides a running list of community resources for students, including food resources, and maintains a relationship with the Tarrant Area Food Bank Mobile Food Pantry for Denton campus deliveries. In addition, they have piloted a frozen meal sharing program through a collaboration with Chartwells and are planning to open a new food pantry on the Denton campus in the fall of 2021.
  • The Student Association for Social Work (SASW) and their faculty sponsor, Dr. Emarely Rosa-Davila, maintain a student food pantry on the 4th floor of Old Main, Denton campus. Students may access the pantry using their student ID and take what they need.
  • Through a collaboration with Housing and Dining Services, Chartwells, and CARE, TWU now offers Swipe Out Hunger, a program that allows students to donate excess dining card swipes to needy students.
  • Multiple courses have included assignments specifically targeted towards Eat Well. Some of them include:
    • GOV 3613, Politics of Food in America: students are writing a student-run blog on issues of food politics, including disparity and sustainability.
    • NFS 3173, Culture and Food: students are collecting cultural recipes to share with their fellow students.
    • NFS 5813, Nutrition Internship: TWU’s dietetic interns are creating culinary videos to show how to do basic cooking techniques.
    • NFS 4473, Nutrition Therapy & Education Methods: students are creating handouts for TWU students on various topics.

Committee Members

  • Wesley Tucker – Nutrition and Food Sciences Houston (co-lead)
  • Monique LeMieux - Nutrition and Food Sciences (co-lead)
  • Sharon Bailey – Professional Education
  • Joanna Bliss – Library Dallas
  • Laurie Bricker – Communication Sciences & Oral Health
  • Francilia Brito Silva – HWI
  • Lydia Dillen – Student Life Dallas
  • Jessica Hernandez – Business
  • Catherine Mbango – Nursing Houston
  • Amy O’Keefe – Campus Alliance and Resource Education
  • Rachel Poland – Nutrition and Food Sciences Houston
  • Carly Richter – Chartwell
  • Joy Spadachene – Nursing
  • Wanyi Wang – Center for Research Design and Analysis
  • Francisca Izukamma – Nursing (student ambassador)

Goals 2024-2025

  1. Increase food security on all three campuses.
  2. Increase food and nutrition literacy on campus and within the larger communities that TWU serves.
  3. Explore attitudes and preferences of students, faculty, and staff towards the eating environment on campus.

Student Organizations

These student organizations reflect and support the overall mission of Eat Well:

  • Food and Nutrition Network 
  • Nutrition & Food Sciences Graduate Club 
  • Phi Upsilon Omicron Honor Society 
  • The Student Association for Social Work 

Page last updated 9:41 AM, August 21, 2024