Community Nutrition Engagement Officer, Heidi Jak wraps up a busy year working with our partners.

2016 has been an exciting and busy year for Community Nutrition Engagement. The year saw the beginning of a new project partnership with Nazareth Catholic College which saw projects such as nutrition curriculum review and lesson development, healthy fundraising policy and the development of a nutrition information booth for parents. Continued partnership with the City of Onkaparinga saw a new direction with projects being carried out with Youth teams within the council and produced exciting initiatives such as the “pop-up nutrition stalls” project and a garden to table cooking program.

The Students Eat Well (StEW) program trained 15 new peer educators who formed 2 teams to work with Flinders Living students and also students accessing the OASIS Multi-faith Centre to improve nutrition.

Both teams ran cooking demonstrations, teaching students how to make Fajitas, and Super-Quick Pizza. Positive feedback was gained from both peer educators and students who participated in the cooking demonstrations.

Students from StEW and Nutrition and Dietetics degrees participated in running stalls at both Mental Health Week and Anti-Poverty Week events. A special mention goes to Claire Perry, Emily Yeo Yingjie, Naomi Crosby and Robert Helm who conducted a cooking demonstration on the main stage amphitheater and was broadcasted on the big screen in the Flinders University Hub. They had great involvement from the audience with many students coming up to make their own cold rolls and enjoying a tasting of a citrus bean salad. I am looking forward to another exciting year with new and existing partnerships and the StEW program!