Nurturing nutrition

Ua-Yuma awarded $250K grant to expand nutrition Sciences program

University of Arizona-Yuma has been awarded a $250,000 Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) grant to expand its Nutritional Sciences program. The grant will fund a kitchen lab space, garden facilities and support for students earning their Bachelor’s in Nutritional Sciences and earning dietetics credentials.

Tanya Hodges, regional academic programs manager of the Yuma Distance Campus and executive director of Business Initiatives and Grant Development for UA, explained that the Yuma campus qualified for the HSI grant because nearly 80% of its student population is Hispanic. Additionally, UA-Yuma demonstrated in its application that the initiative will benefit not only students but the community as well.

Key to this is the SOPA kitchen and its abbreviation, which stands for Student Success by Increasing Opportunity, Participation, Awareness and Achievement.

“Our students on main campus get hands-on experience with food and teaching in the community that has long been a part of the curriculum, but in Yuma, we haven’t had that,” explained Ashlee Linares-Gaffer, an associate professor of practice in the School of Nutritional Sciences and Wellness.

Up until now, students have been taking modified online and home-based labs, but she noted that students don’t share the same cooking situations at home. With the kitchen and garden facilities that are set to be ready by next summer, UA-Yuma plans on further meeting experiential learning needs, bringing in more classes and involving the community.

“Part of what we’d like to do with this space is we’d like to engage the community a little bit more and eventually have these demonstration labs where we invite people to come to see how these foods are sourced,” said Michael Clark, a professor of nutrition for the School of Nutritional Sciences and Wellness.

By increasing experiential learning opportunities and engaging the community, Hodges, Linares-Gaffer and Clark noted that the changes will yield more pathways for students.

“We are training a group of future registered dietitians and nutritionists,” Linares-Gaffer said. “Everybody eats, but not everyone is very hands-on with food and able to apply their nutrition in a real life way. This space is going to provide that for our students in Yuma.”

Discussing the pathways that await students, Hodges explained that students in the program come from varying interests in food and public health, from a foodie-type interest in good food to students interested in eating for health and wellness to those with a medical professional interest in using food pharmacologically.

“Those two circles of influence are coming together,” said Clark. “That’s why we feel there’s more interest coming together in our community. I’m one of those too; I want to see it grow more here. I’m progressing more in my career [as Director of School Nutrition for the Crane School District], I see there’s not really anybody qualified locally to assume my role. I want to help make sure these students get introduced to these other avenues … They don’t have to work at a hospital.”

Hodges affirmed this noting that there’s work to be found in food service, public health and health education but employers in these sectors are struggling to find people who have the skills and education they need. With the SOPA Kitchen, UA plans to fill this gap in the community.

“Bottom line is we want to raise health awareness for food,” Hodges said. “Access is not our issue. Everything green is right around us, but we don’t know what to do with it. Increasing awareness, increasing flavors, taste buds and a healthy food culture into our community [is our goal].”

Hodges shared in a story for UA that the program, which has already been transitioning to more in-person learning, is anticipated to grow. Future students can look forward to not only the kitchen and community garden, but the additional classes that they’ll support. One possible class? Culinary Medicine, which teaches students to create recipes for medically-tailored diets.

To learn more about the nutrition program at UA-Yuma, visit https:// nutrition.cals.arizona.edu/ undergraduate-majors#nutritional_sciences.