Dietician brought to campus

Laura Attanasio Contributing Editor

Do you know the nutritional value of your favorite dishes at ACDC? Do you care? It seems that many Vassar students do. According to Director of Health Education Michelle Soucy, the Health and Counseling Committee and Eating Disorder Task Force found last year that many students were asking for nutritional information about the food available on campus. Not being a registered dietician herself, Soucy was involved in a joint effort to bring a nutritionist to campus.

In the spring a nutritionist was brought to campus a few times as a trial, with a number of offices sharing the costs (including Health Education, Health Services, Disability and Support Services, and Campus Dining). What the trial showed was an overwhelming demand for nutritional advice.

The first time the nutritionist came to campus, there were ten appointments available, and approximately 120 students requested a slot. “We knew that the demand was there,” Soucy said.

This year, President Fergusson and Colton Johnson have pledged money to fund a registered dietician coming to campus one Friday a month. Appointments for the first two Fridays are already full, and require a referral. The registered dietician is Amy Kennedy, a former Aramark employee that now consults at various colleges. Appointment slots are thirty minutes long, and usually students are requested to fill out a two-day food record in advance so that Kennedy can make specific recommendations.

The concerns that bring students to the Health Education Office and the registered dietician vary. Kennedy sees one of the most universal concerns as being the dreaded “freshman fifteen.”

“I think the big thing that causes the ‘freshman fifteen’ is the new way of eating that freshmen are exposed to,” Kennedy said. “A lot of college students are waking up too late, so they skip the first meal of the day, so when they do get to lunch they are so hungry that they eat too much. By skipping the first meal of the day they are actually slowing down their body’s metabolism.”

Soucy and Kennedy have found that other common questions come from vegetarians and vegans worried about getting enough protein, athletes who want to gain or lose weight, students with food allergies, and students with eating disorders.

While most of these issues are fairly ubiquitous among college students, Kennedy found that at Vassar “there is a very large vegetarian population that I’ve run into.” While it is difficult for campus dining to satisfy everyone, she believes that they have been successful in meeting demands for protein sources.

Director of Campus Dining Maureen King has been working at Vassar for ten years, and sees a definite shift in students’ eating concerns. Today, “students really want to know what’s in the food that they’re eating.” They are “very sophisticated, informed consumers.” King saw the demand grow for vegetarian options, then vegan options, and now students want more nutritional information and more nutritious options. This has been reflected in the growing popularity of the vegan station.

The Food Committee is the liaison between the student body and Campus Dining, including representatives from every dorm, a representative from the Office of Health Education, and a representative from the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life. Food Committee Chair Ben Naidus ’05 says that addressing students’ nutritional concerns is one of the Food Committee’s top priorities this year. Problems being addressed include the overall oil content in many different dishes, the amount of sugar in smoothies, and the lack of availability of non-sugar cereals.

Campus Dining and the Food Committee are leading initiatives to make nutritional information more available at ACDC, both on the menu signs and online. King also mentioned a project in the works to create a guide to healthy eating in Campus Dining.

It seems that efforts are combining on several fronts to help students make more informed and healthy food choices. However, it ultimately comes down to choice; while clearly many students on campus do care about nutrition, the pizza and ice cream won’t be going away anytime soon.