Posts Tagged: teaching
Teaching Kitchen course helps improve college students’ food security
Cooperative Extension researcher: Nutrition course a boon for UC Berkeley students
College students across the nation are struggling to meet their basic food needs. Within the University of California system of 280,000 students, 38% of undergraduate students and 20% of graduate students report food insecurity.
As part of the UC Global Food Initiative, in 2015 the Nutrition Policy Institute (a UC Agriculture and Natural Resources statewide research center) identified student food insecurity as a UC systemwide problem, prompting the UC Regents and campuses to collectively address the issue.
All 10 UC campuses now have on-site basic needs centers, providing food, emergency housing and support services. The UC system and campus working groups recognize that meeting basic needs, such as food, is a multidimensional challenge.
In response to the 2022 White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, which called for national efforts to reduce diet-related disease and food insecurity, UC renewed their commitment to cut the proportion of students facing food insecurity in half by 2030. Campuses will partner with local counties to maximize enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (also known as CalFresh in California), provide food for students who do not qualify for CalFresh, and allocate campus food resources to historically underserved student populations.
NPI's collaborative researchers continue to monitor the impact of these efforts, in addition to other interventions, such as supporting students in building basic culinary skills, to improve food security. One multipronged approach to address food insecurity at UC Berkeley is a 14-week course on Personal Food Security and Wellness with a Teaching Kitchen laboratory component.
Sarah Minkow, who teaches the Personal Food Security and Wellness course at UC Berkeley, shared that students learn about nutrition and gain culinary skills through the Cal Teaching Kitchen.
The curriculum is designed with consideration for the time, cost and convenience of healthy eating. Discussions include food safety, calculating nutrient needs, mindful eating and reading nutrition labels. The Teaching Kitchen laboratory brings the lessons to life through knife skills, “no-cook” cooking, microwave cooking and sheet pan meals.
Minkow enthusiastically highlighted her students' “overwhelmingly positive [response to the] lecture and lab,” suggesting the benefits of an interactive learning environment to garner student engagement.
“Students often give feedback that they wish this was a required course for all UC Berkeley students,” said Minkow. She noted one barrier to reaching more students: capacity of the Teaching Kitchen space.
Susana Matias, a Cooperative Extension specialist at the UC Berkeley Department of Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology and collaborative researcher with the NPI, evaluated the impact of the Personal Food Security and Wellness course at UC Berkeley.
Matias reported that increasing food literacy and culinary skills among students has shown to increase intake of fruits and vegetables, and frequency of cooking, and reduce the number of skipped meals. Her study on the impact of the 14-week nutrition course also found a significant decrease in student food insecurity.
Across the UC System, students are benefiting from their campus Teaching Kitchens, including UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UCLA and UC Riverside. Other campuses such as UC San Diego, UC San Francisco, UC Santa Cruz and UC Santa Barbara offer basic student cooking classes as well.
Katherine Lanca, UC Global Food Initiative fellow working with NPI, attended the 2022 Teaching Kitchen Research Conference as part of her fellowship to learn about the latest research on teaching kitchens supporting equitable health outcomes.
The conference was hosted at UCLA by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Department of Nutrition in association with the Teaching Kitchen Collaborative. Teaching kitchens are a promising approach to supporting food security and cultivating lifelong habits, especially among a college student population.
/h3>Academic Senate Presents Awards to Diane Ullman, Joanna Chiu, Walter Leal
UC Davis professors Diane Ullman and Joanna Chiu of the Department of Entomology and...
UC Davis Academic Senate and the Academic Federation honored their award recipients at a ceremony on Tuesday, May 31 in the International House. This is a screen shot of the PowerPoint presentation.
Academic Senate award winners include (from left) Professor Joanna Chiu, Distinguished Graduate Teaching Award; UC Davis Distinguished Professor Walter Leal, Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award; and UC Davis Distinguished Professor Pamela Ronald, Faculty Distinguished Research Award. (Courtesy Photo)
UC Davis distinguished professor Walter Leal at work on one of his COVID-19 webinars.
Professors Diane Ullman and Joanna Chiu Receive Distinguished Teaching Awards
Two professors in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology are recipients of...
In this 2015 art show photo, UC Davis professor Diane Ullman looks over the work that her students created in her Entomology 001 class, "Art, Science and the World of Insects." (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
In this 2016 file photo, molecular geneticist and mentor Joanna Chiu, a co-administrator of the UC Davis Research Scholars Program in Insect biology, is circled by her students (from left) Rosanna Kwok, Katherine Murphy and Jessica West. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
UC Davis Arboretum Teaching Nursery's Online Plant Sales Scheduled
If you've been thinking about bees, butterflies and other pollinators--and wondering when the...
A Western tiger swallowtail, Papilio rutulus, nectaring on a butterfly bush, Buddleia davidii. Many nectar plants will be available at the UC Davis Arboretum Nursery online plant sales. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii, nectaring on a purple salvia, Salvia farinacea. Salvias are popular in pollinator gardens.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A black-faced bumble bee, Bombus californicus, foraging on purple ginny salvia. Salvias are popular at the UC Davis Arboretum nursery plant sales. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Gulf Fritillary, Agraulis vanillae, on purple lantana. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
UC Davis Arboretum Teaching Nursery manager Taylor Lewis caring for the plants. Plant sales this year are online sales with curbside pickup. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
COVID-10 pandemic precautions have changed the in-person plant sales to online plant sales at the UC Davis Arboretum Teaching Nursery. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
This is a scene from the pre-COVID-19 UC Davis Arboretum Teaching Nursery plant sales. The sales are now online, with curbside pickup. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
2021 Master Gardener Program Application Update!
Are you interested in helping others and giving back to your community? The UCCE Master Gardener...