Megan Kaplan
Contributing Writer
Eating in the same cafeteria every day can get tiresome, so the Longbrake Wellness Center and Dining Services have joined together to hold Lowry Food Tours.
The hope of these tours is to reverse that feeling of boredom. Rachel David, a staff member in the Office of Health Education at the Wellness Center, recognized that it is easy for students to get stuck eating the same food every day, and hoped “the tours will show students that there are creative options at Lowry that will help them get out of their pizza/burger/fries rut.”
Data from the National College Health Assessment shows that students do not eat a balanced diet, partly because they do not know how to incorporate healthy food options into their everyday meals. David stated that she “hoped that students would learn better by having someone show them how to make healthy food options.”
The idea for the tours started spring 2017 when David sent out a survey asking for the students’ favorite “Lowry hacks.” The response was decidedly enthusiastic, with a small group of students even sharing a list of some Lowry hacks they came up with in the 2016-17 school year that they titled “Creative Woo-trition.” It was then a natural idea to hold tours to share all of these health “hacks” to the broader campus community.
If utilized correctly, Lowry has an abundance of options -— so there are many ways to create your own “Lowry Hacks.” On days when you have more time, try to grab something from Noodles and something from the Salad Bar that will combine to make a uniquely delicious meal. When you use Lowry food as basic ingredients to form your own meal it becomes a lot less monotonous, and a lot healthier. This idea is the foundation for the Lowry Food tours.
In spring 2018, David hired Jordan Ouellette ’18 as a program assistant in her office. Ouellette had been interested in health and wellness for a while, and since graduating has gone on to be accepted into the dietetics program at Ohio University.
She was a driving force for the tours, putting the information for the tours together and coming up with the format of the tours. Once Ouellette graduated, the tours passed to current student Callie Ogland-Hand ’19, who has since followed this project to the end. Marjorie Shamp, Judy Snader and Lowry staff have also all been very supportive throughout the process of creating and carrying out these tours.
The tours were led by Ogland-Hand and were held from 4:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 29 through Thursday, Nov. 1. In approximately 30 minutes, the tour went station to station focusing on basics, vegetarian, grill, noodles, salad bar and the specialty food stations.
Of all of the things that students learn in college, how to eat a balanced diet could be one of the most important. It is crucial to understand how essential nutrition is to our lives, and the Lowry Food Tours were a great way to emphasize this to our students.