National Nutrition Month became an opportunity to educate us about healthy food choices and to encourage us to recognize the importance of what we eat.
This year’s theme is “Beyond the Table,” which showcases the farm-to-fork aspects of nutrition from food production to distribution to grocery stores and farmer markets.
LBCC’s Nutrition and Dietetics Club promoted a “Walk For Wellness” to celebrate healthfulness and wholeness on Mar. 26, 2024.
The club first originated back in Fall of 2021 in hopes of spreading nutrition awareness at LBCC.
Members of the club include Jessica Mendez, Christina Madrigal and Erika Crisp, who were in high spirits making every student feel cheerful for good health.
The Nutrition Club had a table set up in front of the LAC F building where every student could pick up a healthy snack and a pedometer.
Each student who participated in the walk and grabbed a pedometer could come back to the table in ten minutes to receive a free water tumbler.
“I learned in nutrition that it’s very political, it’s very personal, it’s very controversial and it changes and all that research on how everyone is different which also shows how nutrition is environmental as well, so there isn’t one thing, it’s a whole society where people just want to share their passion with food,” said Mendez.
The club also wants students to know that the program gets involved with the community beyond the school, which includes volunteering and community service opportunities that can expand students’ knowledge of nutrition.
“Once my dad got diagnosed with diabetes, it inspired me to want to help people with their diets and made me fall for nutrition,” said Crisp.
Cal State Long Beach and LBCC alumni Andrea Valdez is now interning with the Nutrition Club to deepen her career at a community college level, hoping to get her master’s in nutrition and dietetics.
“I started in nutrition working in the kitchen for a local hospital and they saw the potential in me and they encouraged me to come to school and helped me enroll at LBCC. I graduated with honors and that’s where my love for nutrition started,” said Valdez.
Nutrition is a critical part of our daily health and development, it is an unavoidable necessity.
“At first I wanted to be a nurse but once I took nutrition classes at LBCC I really liked it and my goal is to be a registered dietician for a hospital. I’ve been eight years vegan and two years vegetarian till this moment,” said Madrigal.
The LBCC Nutrition Club has an Instagram where they share upcoming events for any students who want to participate in a healthy adventure.