Students express themselves in food
The Dietetics Student Association and Aggies for Change are hosting a food art competition in the TSC on Friday, March 18.
Erika Hopkins, president of the Dietetics Student Association (DSA) said “It’s national nutrition month, so we wanted to do something big to make the students on campus aware. We thought doing a food art competition would be a good way to get people involved from all majors, not just nutrition majors.”
Alyssa Roberts, a junior majoring in nutrition, and an officer in the Dietetics Student Association said the main competition will allow students to use food as their “creative medium.”
“It could look like a person, an animal, or just something randomly artistic,” Roberts said.
She said the students get to vote on what entry they like best by using their spare change. Each piece will have a jar in front of it and students vote for their favorite by donating their money.
There will also be an activity Hopkins called the “burn out.” She said the goal is to see how many calories USU can burn in one day.
“We’ll have all sorts of activities to do: zumba, hula hooping, jump ropes. Our goal is to burn 3,500 calories, which is how many are in one pound of fat,” she said.
Roberts said, “This is more for awareness than anything else. Obviously we want
everyone to have fun, which is why we have all the different activities, but we want everybody to connect their calorie intake and output to realize what it means to be healthy.”
She said they will have posters that show how many minutes of exercise it takes to burn so many calories, and equate that with so many cookies or bags of chips or soda.
“We want to help people visually see,” she said, “and understand how much they’re taking into their bodies and how much they need to exercise in order to balance that, and make people aware of national nutrition month.”
Hopkins said the student who enters the winning creation gets to keep the money they earned, and all the rest of the money in the jars goes to Aggies for Change and SNAC (Student Nutrition Access Center). The voting period ends at 1 p.m. in the International Lounge. Students can show up with whatever they have created until 9 a.m., and all students are invited to participate.
Senior Tessa Goodall, student giving chair for the university said, “This semester, Aggies for Change is focusing on letting the donating students decide what colleges the money they donate will support. We are holding a competition between the colleges on the patio by the fountains where students can donate their spare change to whichever college they want to win.”
She said the winning college will keep all the money they collect, get recognition from the University and a philanthropy trophy.
Elizabeth Bare, who is heading Aggies for Change, said the money raised for each college will go to the respective deans and they’ll decide what to do that will benefit the students within the college the most.
“The faculty and staff are also getting involved – they are planning to match every dollar that the students donate to the college with a dollar from the faculty, which is great because it will double the results,” she said.
Bare said, “There are so many alumni that donate money to the University every year after they graduate, and the programs rely heavily on that private support. Without it, a lot of programs that make USU so great aren’t possible. I think it’s an admirable to see students being willing to donate, right now, even just the smallest amount, because it’s more of an education campaign than just a fundraiser.”
The Food Art show and “burn out” will be taking place in the International Lounge from 10-2. The Aggies for Change competition will be held on the patio outside the TSC from 8:30- 3:30.
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