In honor of March being national nutrition month the Bluffton University Nutrition Association (BUNA) is hosting events all month long. This year’s theme for national nutrition month is “Personalize Your Plate.”
In previous years, BUNA hosted “lunch-and-learn” classes during national nutrition month where they allow students to sample healthy, innovative recipes. However, this was unable to take place this year due to COVID-19.
Instead of the lunch-and-learn events, BUNA is hosting virtual “How-To” events every Wednesday via Zoom which demonstrate how to create meals with a variety of healthy ingredients.
COVID-19 may have made lunch-and-learn events impossible, but BUNA was still able to host their “Yoga and Yogurt” event which is a yearly tradition.
Meghan Ream, junior biology and dietetics major and president of BUNA stands next to a national nutrition month reminder.
Meghan Ream, president of BUNA, believes that national nutrition month is an important time to promote nutritional and healthy dietary choices.
“What you put into your body is going to directly affect all other aspects of your life,” said Ream. “Eating a nutritious diet is just another form of self-care.”
Kayla McSwords, senior dietetics major and former president of BUNA, believes that the challenge for this year is to get people to attend and stay engaged in the virtual events.
“Time, creativity, and thoughtfulness about presentation and engagement is what makes a successful event,” said McSwords. “Meghan and the other BUNA officers have done an outstanding job of getting people involved in COVID times. It is a lot more difficult to get people to come to an event when we can’t gather around physically and eat a big meal or taste test things, but the events that have happened so far have been successful. We can tell that students are interested in learning more about food, so that gets us excited.”
McSwords encourages students to attend BUNA events throughout the rest of the month.
“We are happy with event turn-out so far, but we would love to see more new faces,” said McSwords. “Our goal is to increase mindfulness while eating, make people more aware of healthy food options, and create an environment where certain foods do not have negative ideas attached to them.”
