Washington University in St. Louis: Most Innovative Nutrition & Wellness Program (Bronze)

Washington University Nutrition & Dietary Wellness Program

NACUFS Nutrition Award Submission 2022 Submission & Photographs by Washington University's Dining Services Nutrition & Dietary Wellness Team

View our Photo Album here.

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WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY ENTRANCE ESSAY Washington University’s Nutrition & Dietary Wellness program strives to include and empower all students, regardless of their individual dietary needs and preferences, to create a positive relationship with food and their bodies. Our work with students, including nutrition consultations, food education programming, allergy-friendly tours, cooking classes, and other special events, encourage an all-foods-fit approach to nutrition.

Our most recent nutrition campaign, Focusing on You in 2022, included a variety of body & food friendly events, including our Post-It Challenge, Letters of Love, and weekly Nutrition E-News. We encouraged students to focus on a more gentle and flexible approach to nutrition. Our Nutrition ENews is now sent monthly to subscribers including nutrition updates on campus.

Our nutrition program is dedicated to ensuring each student has access to delicious, high-quality meals that fits their dietary needs and preferences. We work with our culinary team to expand our offerings including Kosher, Halal, vegetarian, vegan, allergy-friendly, and nutritionally-balanced menu options across campus. Our team of Registered Dietitians play a critical role in reviewing and providing feedback for daily menu offerings and special event menus, such as preseason athletic meals and Moonlight Breakfast. Our team conducts culinary staff trainings, including FARE certified trainings and customer service trainings sensitive to those with or who have had a history of disordered eating.

New in the fall of 2020 and expanded in 2021, our Top 8 Allergy Friendly stations in our three main dining halls allows for inclusive dining for students with food allergies. Additionally, our Simply Made menus are reserved for students with food allergies who need additional menu customization to meet their needs. Both allergy-friendly menus are prepared in a designated space within each kitchen by FARE-trained staff and are checked and stamped for approval by the manager on duty. We value student feedback and continuously strive to improve allergy-friendly options across campus.

Our nutrition team also collaborates closely with our colleagues at Habif Student Health & Wellness and WashU Athletics & Recreation. These partnerships have helped our program adopt its sensitivity and inclusivity to eating disorders and disordered eating. Our dining programs aim to be mindful of specific brands, labeling, and marketing that may be triggering for students that struggle with disordered eating. We aim to encourage and reinforce the balance and benefits of all foods groups.

Habif refers students with special dietary needs to our team of dietitians for nutrition consultations. Our dietitians can help these students navigate the dining offerings and/or provide nutrition education to manage their medical diagnosis, such as diabetes or disordered eating. For athletics, we offer individual nutrition consultations and team talks to improve nutrition performance goals. With all students, especially athletes, we encourage a non-diet approach to nutrition, with goals that focus on improving energy, both mentally and physically, rather than weight-centered goals.

We strive to uplift all students regardless of their nutrition & dietary, medical, or performance nutrition needs with a safe space to eat, thrive, and feel comfortable in their own ever-changingbody and relationship with food.

Innovation

Nutrition Programming & Food Education Building a Positive Relationship with Food & Our Bodies

Letters of Love Event This event took place in November 2021. Students were encouraged to write a letter or note of kindness to their future self , friend, or loved one. Dining Services mailed the letters, along with a box of other goodies, in February 2022. See more pictures from the event in our Box picture album.

mini car ds mad e by ou for stud r team ents to take wit h them or inclu de in th eir lette r

We can all use a little kindness once in a while!

Whether you wrote this letter to yourself or are receiving it from someone else, just know that you are loved!

WashU Letters of Love Campaign 2022

Sprea d t h e L o v e Post-It Challenge This kindness campaign took place in the women's restroom in the Bear's Den during the week of Valentine's Day. Students left kind and thoughtful post-it notes on the mirror for other students to read for encouragement and kindness towards their bodies, food choices, and daily affirmations. See more pictures from the event in our Box picture album.

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Overview of Curriculum

Our curriculum focuses on an all-foods-fit approach to nutrition with inclusivity for individual nutrition & dietary needs and preferences.

Website Content: Healthy Dining V i e w o u r w e b s i t e h e r e : h t t p s : / / d i n i n g s e r v i c e s .w u st l. edu / nut rit ion/

Webs i t e C o n t e n t : Navigating the Dining Program with I n d i v i d u a l D ietary Needs & Preferences

Website Content: Allergy-Friendly Dining

Marketing & Advertising

Our nutrition team designs nutrition-focused educational and promotional materials for special events.

Social Media & Nutrition Education Our dietitian-led WashU Nutrition Instagram page @twistednutrition features nutrition updates on campus with a non-diet and all-foods-fit approach to nutrition. Here we reinforce our nutrition program goals and objectives of building a healthier and positive relationship with food with options that students can find on campus.

National Nutrition Month: March 2022 For National Nutrition Month, we organized a number of free, nutrition events on campus for students. Below is our poster signage for the events stationed at each dining hall. We aimed for nutritionally balanced options that students would like along with allergy-friendly offerings. See more pictures from some of our National Nutrition Month events in our Box picture album.

National Nutrition Month Build-Your-Own Trail Mix Bar This event for National Nutrition Month was a great success! Students could build their own trail mix to take with them for a nutritious and delicious snack. Nutrition education was provided during the event to focus on filling and energizing foods as well as fun foods. We wanted to students to remember that energy comes from food and that energy gets you through the mental and physical challenges each day! Fun foods play an important role in one's nutrition plan! See more pictures from the event in our Box picture album.

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National Nutrition Month Produce Pop-Up Market We made this logo below to celebrate National Nutrition Month and had it printed on canvas totes.

These totes will be given away to students at our Produce Pop-Up Market at the end of March to complete our National Nutrition Month events. This event was planned to address some challenges students have shared regarding access to fresh fruits and vegetables on campus.

Here is the logo we designed for National Nutrition Month!

We designed cotton tote bags with our logo to giveaway at our Produce Pop-Up Market. The first 275 students at the market would receive a free tote!

Program Content

Our curriculum focuses on an all-foods-fit approach to nutrition with inclusivity for individual nutrition & dietary needs and preferences.

Simply Made Menu Our Simply Made Menu is reserved for students with more attentive allergy needs. All Simply Made orders are prepared in a designated space in the kitchen with FARE trained staff to prevent and minimize cross-contact. Menus are adjusted and modified each semester based on student feedback.

Simply Made Menu

Nutrition E-News Nutrition E-News is our educational newsletter written by our team of Registered Dietitians. Below are a few screenshots of a few of our previous newsletters and pieces within our newsletter.

Subscribers: Promoted during nutrition programming events in December 2021 71 Active Subscribers as of March 29, 2022 Goal: Hit 300 subscribers by December 2022 Mailing Platform is MailChimp Nutrition E-News Archive: Click here to view the archive.

"I just want to say that I love these newsletters and you all are doing such a fantastic job."Nutrition E-News Subscriber

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Feedback & Evaluation

We focus heavily on student feedback to adjust and update our dining program based on student needs and requests.

Dietitian Feedback for Special Menus B e l o w is the men u f o r o u r M oo n l i g h t B r e a k f a s t w h i c h t a k e s place during reading week e a c h semester a f t e r h o u r s . W e a i m t o m a k e s u r e t h e r e i s a n option for everyone.

Dietitian Feedback for Special Menus Local Restaurant Partnerships

DININ G SERVIC E S ADVISORY TEAM (DSAT) NOTES Dietitian Feedback for Dining Program Our Dining Services Student Advisory Team (DSAT) is a group of students which provides Dining Services with valuable feedback monthly. Below is an example of some of the feedback we recieved from students regarding nutrition and dining options on campus.

Dairy & Gluten-Friendly Salad Bar This salad bar was designed & implemented in collaboration with our culinary team and Dining Services Nutrition team. We aimed to make this salad bar as allergy-friendly as possible.

Due to space constraints we omitted dairy-containing ingredients. We also chose gluten-free grains and only offered croutons in a separated, labeled, enclosed container.

We also worked together on a planogram to minimize risk of cross contact for our plantbased students.

Pictures

Letters of Love Event

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Packages ready to mail to students on Valentine's Day!

Sprea d t h e L o v e Post-It Challenge

Notes of kindness and encouragement were left on the mirror for everyone to read!

A few examples of the kind messages students left to one another.

Cooking Classes

A cooking class favorite: Blackened Chicken and Vegetable Jambalaya

Students learn valuable skills such as grilling, sauteeing, & safe knife usage!

Cookie decorating at the bakery during finals week to de-stress and learn more about intuitive eating!

National Nutrition Month Build-Your-Own Trail Mix Bar

Trail mix is a great source of energy for busy days! Our favorite mix includes something crunchy, like nuts, something chewy, like dried fruit, and something sweet, like chocolate chips!

The Trail Mix bar set-up inside Bear's Den. This event was free for all students!

National Nutrition Month Produce Pop-Up Market

The first 250 students received a free tote bag for National Nutrition Month!

The Produce Market was set-up inside Bear's Den. This event was free for all students!

National Nutrition Month Fruit & Yogurt Bar

Fruit, Yogurt, & Granola is a great way to start your day with some healthy fats, protein, and fiber!

The Fruit & Yogurt Bar was set-up inside the DUC. This event was free for all students!

Gluten & Dairy Friendly Salad Bar

Gluten & Dairy Friendly Salad Bar

Allergy Friendly Options

Healthy Dining Inititiaves

Special Events & Local Partnerships