NSU brings attention to National Food is Medicine Day

A new NSU study shows that 32% of students at the university fear they might not have a daily nutritious meal. 

Stephanie Petrosky, associate professor and chair of the department of nutrition, who conducted the study on food inequalities among NSU students, said the number is higher than the national rate for college students. 

“I worry about our students here at NSU. We found the level of food insecurity in all of our students, and it’s a mixed pool of graduate and undergraduate students,” said Petrosky, adding that the study has helped to raise awareness on this issue as NSU brings more attention to Sept. 14 – National Food is Medicine Day. 

Marilyn Gordon, assistant professor in the department of nutrition, said the day illustrates the importance of nutritional food accessibility. 

“It’s an awareness campaign to alert people that there are inequities out there related to food, and what each community can do about it,” said Gordon.  

For students at NSU who are struggling with food inequality, the Shark Pantry in the Don Taft University Center can be a helpful resource.  

Nadine Mikati, registered dietitian and associate professor in the department of nutrition, said the pantry is open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and offers donated foods to all students who come by. 

“It allows students to go and basically fill up bags of what’s donated there. They get items from Feeding South Florida,” said Mikati. “It’s still in the development phase. Slowly as it get more funding and more students need it, it’ll grow.” 

Dynyce Boyce, adjunct instructor in the department of nutrition, encouraged students to build their food security by eating more foods with fiber rather than sugar. 

“Soft drinks or candies, cakes, those types of simple sugar foods, you probably are eating hours on end, but those foods don’t lead to satiety and the feeling of fullness in the way that more nutritious foods like fiber, fruits, and vegetables do,” said Boyce. 

Government programs can be used to develop food security, like the WIC program, which helps families with children under 5, and SNAP, which gives lower income families cards with an allocated amount of money for food shopping.   But not all agree they do enough. 

“When I was interning at WIC many moons ago, eventually they started to offer things like fresh fruits and vegetables, but there were also choices like fruit juices and that sort of thing, and we know that that’s probably not the healthiest thing,” said Boyce. 

Mikati agrees. 

“They consider the tomato sauce on the pizza a vegetable,” said Mikati. “If the government is providing food options, you want to pick something that doesn’t have all these additives or colorings. We pay a lot of taxes, I expect those taxes to be used for better food items.” 

For students looking to develop both their food security and nutrition, they can turn to The Student Wellness Initiative at NSU. This initiative started running on Sept. 12 and is free for all students. 

“All of the NSU undergraduate students have a chance to participate in three visits with a registered and licensed dietitian to learn more about nutritional wellness, and that might be, ‘how do I develop a grocery list? How do I create healthy meals out of what I have in my dorm?’” said Gordon. 

For more information about food security and nutrition programs, students can email questions to Petrosky at spetrosky@nova.edu. 

“We have an undergraduate program in nutrition if people are looking for majors in the study of nutrition, which is a mixture of science, human behavior and public health,” said Petrosky. “Education, in my opinion, is the way to empower people to a better, healthier life.”