Mayor Kruzan names March "Nutrition Month," campus reacts

This month marks Bloomington’s first “Nutrition Month” as declared by Mayor Mark Kruzan, and IU is wasting no time cleaning up its plate.

To encourage a healthier spring for students and faculty, Residential Programs and Dining Services, IU Health and the Student Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics at IU are running programs and initiatives during March.

“This year’s theme is ‘Enjoy the Taste of Eating Right,’” RPS Registered Dietician Rachel Noirot said.

Noirot said she hopes faculty and staff try on-campus dining options to see what they’re missing.

“We have healthy options in our dining halls, especially the new Woodlands location with things like Romaine for salads and a fresh juicer,” Noirot said. “They are so close, but yet there’s not a lot of faculty or staff that know about these options.”

RPS has made an online calendar of scheduled, healthy menus for anyone to review before making the trip to the food courts, Noirot said.

“For all of March, we’ve highlighted healthy options that people can find,” she said.
The calendar, as well as general menus for each day, can be found on RPS’s
website.

Above all, Noirot said she wants students to be aware of their access to registered dieticians on campus.

“All students pay a health fee and can see a dietician at IU Health for free,” Noirot said. “They just call and make an appointment. They don’t have to have any issues and can come just talk about their diet, or if they’re investigating being vegetarian they can do that.”

If students are curious about nutrition at individual IU dining halls, there is a chef on staff at each one who can tell them about special dietary needs and exactly how their food is prepared, Noirot said.

IU Health has also worked with IU Athletics this month for their seventh annual food drive for Hoosier Hills Food Bank.

“The goal is to get all people to have access to healthy food options and to really decrease food insecurity,” IU Health Registered Dietician Samantha Schaefer said. “I really do believe no matter what their level of income, every person should be entitled to a healthy lifestyle.”

So far, the food drive has collected record-breaking amounts, Schaefer said. After just four hours at Kroger March 1, IU Health and several IU athletes collected 808 pounds of food and $243, amounting to a total of 3,481 pounds of food, Schaefer said.

IU Health in Paoli, Bedford and Morgan Hospital in Martinsville  are also sponsoring food drives, making this a regional drive.

IU Health and Southern Indiana physicians are also collecting food with bins set up in several primary care offices, Schaefer said.

Finally, the Student Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics at IU is working to help students learn to prepare healthy dishes.

“In the past we’ve done cooking demos in the dorms, but this year seemed like a good opportunity to expose our club and nutrition month to new groups, to help broaden ourselves culturally,” SAND President Elizabeth Kehoe, said. “It’s a good chance to show other cultures how to eat healthier with their food rather than always with American food.”

SAND members will be having a cooking demo March 26 at La Casa. All students are welcome, and they will be making tostadas, Kehoe said.

If students ever want to look into a healthier college lifestyle, Noirot said she would be willing to meet with them.

“We just want to reemphasize that nutrition really is important especially on campus,” Noirot said. “Students and faculty get really busy and tend to overlook healthy options, but in the long run building these good habits can go a long way.”