Icing on the Cake: NDFS Designated as USU Community Engaged Department

Probiotic cocktails. Blueberry antioxidants. Paleo. Atkins. Keto. Getting the public to pay attention to topics on food and nutrition is pretty easy these days. Getting them to swallow the evidence-backed science related to the same topics? That’s tricky.

But working with local communities on food and nutrition is something that USU’s Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food Sciences (NDFS) is deeply committed to, according to Department Head Heidi Wengreen. For this exceptional work, the department was recently designated a Community Engaged Department, a classification held by only a handful of campus units.

Nutrition and dietetics inherently lend themselves to community engagement and communication, said Katie Kraus, associate professor in NDFS. After all, everybody eats. But learning the soft skills to engage in effective projects needs to be moved to the top of the menu, she said.

NDFS students complete experiential learning projects as part of their degree program, working both one-on-one and with larger organizations to provide nutritional advice and support. They build communication skills, learn to cold call, network, and master the ability to find, interpret and translate research-backed evidence into plain language, said Maryann Schneider, director of the undergraduate dietetics program and an instructor of a community nutrition class in the department.

The big challenge facing both communities and students is the high level of misinformation circulating about nutrition, eating and weight loss, Schneider said. People seem determined to get clicks at the price of health, evidence and practicality.

“The central, evidence-based message we work to communicate is a sustainable approach: moderation, balance, and variety — and maybe that’s not as exciting as ‘quick fixes’ and clickbait like detox teas and restrictive diets,” she said. “But it’s what works in the long run.”

Students in NDFS learn skills to share their knowledge with a wider community, both on campus and off. The Nutrition Education and Counseling lab is a supervised setting where students lead one-on-one sessions practicing a client-centered approach. The Community Nutrition course partners with groups like the SNAC food pantry, Harvest Rescue group, Cache Valley Food Pantry and USU Extension with support and services.

In other classes, students get the chance to interview leaders to understand the complexities of operating programs, including maintaining funding and navigating regulations. Instructors in NDFS stress the importance of teaching students to begin work by conducting a needs assessment to determine what is actually needed. This helps students learn to design curated projects that serve a practical need.

For example, one student worked with a local emergency shelter that had been serving prepackaged meals to clients. The student researched, shopped for ingredients, prepared and froze a supply of nutritiously appropriate meals for the shelter to offer, easy for clients to heat and eat.

Other students led interviews of people using the SNAC food pantry on campus, documenting the impact of the service on students’ wellbeing. The project helped to secure funding for the pantry, providing a considerable monetary benefit to expand services to USU students. It was a "tangible success" that came out of these efforts, Kraus said.

“This kind of direct fieldwork provides crucial experiences to our students and helps them be ready to become professional and leaders in their field. It helps them serve the communities where they live and offers them networking opportunities for fields they may want to pursue after graduation,” Kraus said.

“The designation recognizes departments that are enacting USU's land grant mission through reciprocal and mutually beneficial partnerships, and spotlights this high-impact practice and the impact it can have on students and communities,” said Nelda Ault-Dyslin, assistant director of Community Engaged Learning at USU. “As one of only four departments across the institution that have received this designation, we really think of NDFS as a model for all other units that are interested in aligning their work with community-based needs and ideas.”

This kind of engagement helps USU communicate the value of higher education and illustrates its responsiveness to the communities it serves, she said.

“Our hope is that it will be easier for community-based organizations and the general public to access the wealth of resources, networks and knowledge that USU stewards,” she said.