Posted Monday, September 23, 2019 @ 3:13 PM According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), with every meal and snack, half of the plate should comprise of fruits and vegetables. At UCF, the Director of Wellness and Health Promotion Services (WHPS), Maureen Hawkins explains that—on average—UCF students eat zero to one portion of fruits and/or vegetables in a single week. With this incongruity in mind, WHPS works towards closing this nutrition divide through their FreshU Project. The FreshU project is a three-step initiative formulated with three goals: feed, educate, and instruct students on nutrition, meal preparation, and safety and cooking. “Our goal is to not only bring more fresh fruits and vegetables, but also provide students with an opportunity to learn where their food comes from and inspire them to incorporate more produce into their diets,” Hawkins said. The first wave of the FreshU project is the FreshU Gardens, which is composed of flatbed gardens at UCF’s Arboretum and tower gardens located in the Student Union, Student Health Services, Recreation and Wellness Center (RWC), and WHPS. Some of the produce grown in the flatbeds and tower gardens include lettuce, kale, eggplants, herbs, and tomatoes. The produce is then dispersed to the student population and administered via the second wave of the FreshU project: FreshU Mobile Cooking Demo. Hawkins described the FreshU Mobile Cooking Demo as a “food truck being used as an educational tool.” At each FreshU Mobile Cooking Demo, students are encouraged to watch the process of making particular dishes, take part in the demo by tasting the meal, and create the meal at home through a recipe card. Hawkins said the one interaction with a student that resonated most vividly with her was when a student approached her and said that the food provided actually tasted good. “More times than not, this is the first-time students have had these fruits and vegetables—or in the very least—in the means that we prepare them,” Hawkins said. “By introducing them to these different, healthier food options, students are more likely to try it again, because it tastes good.” The final wave of the FreshU Project—FreshU Cooking Classes—is where students watch a nutritionist make meals and taste test the food, while also cooking themselves. All of this is maintained through the partnership of Lucky’s Market, UCF Arboretum, UCF Knights Helping Knights Pantry, and the Parent and Family Fund Grant. Donations received via the Parent and Family Fund Grant are crucial in keeping the program available to UCF students. “[The Parent and Family Grant] helped us dream and achieve that end goal of promoting the healthy choice—the easy choice,” Hawkins said. “It has helped us promote an important lifelong skill that is immediate, helps with health, energy level, and immune systems.” In the future, WHPS intends to introduce FreshU To-Go, a “café-like” experience that will provide small, quick tastes of healthy additions to diets such as hummus and carrots, soup, and smoothies. The FreshU To-Go Café will find its home in the RWC, right next to WHPS. Additionally, WHPS plans to incorporate a Snack Cycle program, which will involve their peer advocates cycling out into the UCF community on electric bikes to hand-out quick snacks and produce. Parents and students can find more information on recipes, when the various events are happening and how to be apart of the cause at WHPS website. Back