Every Thursday Seminar, students and faculty are greeted as they enter FitzGerald’ s room 103 with fresh pots of coffee and tea, along with the occasional treat, as part of the DNS Coffee Break Challenge. The goal of this challenge is to raise funds for local charities, in particular to fund the nutritious meal we prepare for families staying at the Ronald McDonald House. The coffee, tea, and treats are offered on a pay what you can basis, with all proceeds from the Coffee Break going towards this goal of giving back to the community. In addition to your cup of java, the NSGSA Community Liaison’ s, Sara Stinson and Jarvis Noronha, have organized a raffle, receiving donations from Lulu Lemon, David’ s Tea, and Tim Hortons for the prizes. Thank-you to all patrons for the continued support!
Coffee Breaks
The amazing food journey
From November 4 th to the 13 th, the NSGSA represented the Department at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair( RAWF). This marked the 7 th year the NSGSA has participated in the RAWF and the 3 rd year exhibiting a booth with interactive activities as part of the aMAZEing Food Journey. RAWF is an annual Toronto celebration known for being the largest combined indoor agriculture fair and equestrian competition in the world. The aMAZEing Food Journey is an interactive place where children are encouraged to learn through play while making their way through a MAZE following the journey of food from farm to table. Within this maze, DNS volunteers engaged children in hands-on activities while concurrently demonstrating concepts surrounding the food groups, portion sizes, macro- and micro-nutrients, as well as where to find nutrition information on food products and what it means.
OUTREACH
As the winter holidays approached, the NSGSA began collecting donations for the annual Basketeer drive. Basketeers is an organization that provides some of the simple necessities and niceties of life, bundled in a basket and gifted to women who have faced abuse as they embark on the next chapter of their lives. This program would not be possible without your benevolent contributions. Thanks to the generosity of individuals in the Department, 4 baskets of household items were assembled in FitzGerald on December 12 th and donated to women in need.
Basketeers
On Sunday February 26 th, representatives from the DNS and NSGSA conducted a workshop on Diabetes and Nutrition to a room filled with a local community group.
The workshop introduced diabetes and its associated complications and discussed topics such as sugars and sugar alternatives, grocery shopping, reading nutrition labels, portion sizes, as well as addressing some diabetes related nutrition myths. This was followed by a lively question and answer session where queries relating to common nutrition controversies and social media-reported stories were prominent. Thank-you to the leader of the community group for inviting us to present and their kind request to have us return to lead workshops on other nutrition-related topics.
Diabetes and nutrition Workshop
Issue 3 | Nutrition of Everything | 5