University of Colorado Colorado Springs
EN-1: Student Educators Program

The Sustainable Teaching Kitchen cooking classes strive to make cooking accessible to everyone by providing hands-on experience and instruction to students. Classes center around meals that are nutritional, quick, easy, and affordable. We provide a variety of programs to accommodate varying interests, ages, and abilities. Ingredients are supplied through our partnership with the Office of Sustainability and funded through the UCCS Green Action Fund, to provide high quality, locally sourced and organic products when possible. Our Registered Dietitians will provide you with nutritional information, culinary techniques, and food sanitation guidelines. You will also have the opportunity to eat the dishes prepared during the class you attend. Recipe cards are provided and made available online. We can accommodate most food allergies and dietary restrictions with appropriate substitutions.

Registered Dietitians are trained in sustainable practices such as,
- educating student participants on foodsheds and if any of the food they are preparing comes from a local farm located in our foodshed
- tips to reduce food waste by creating a list before grocery shopping
- produce that is in season and therefore usually less expensive
General nutrition and wellness -Eating healthy on a budget
- shopping strategies
- properly fueling exercise and sports nutrition
- mindful eating -Building a healthy relationship with food
- chronic diseases diet plans
- food allergies, insensitivities, and specialized dietary patterns
- supporting students with food insecurities by connecting them to campus resources

Our registered dietitians are the trained student educators and lead the sessions through visual and verbal explanation while assisting student participants through each step. Classes are hands-on, experiential learning opportunities where students can do the tasks of prepping and cooking with supervision of a dietitian. Classes consist of usually 10-25 students that partner to use the teaching kitchen resources. Formal and informal discussions are had about varying topics depending on the dynamic of participants.

Many of the program’s audience includes residential students, first-year and transfer students through their GPS classes, and international students.

Each Friday, the SWELL (Sustainability, Wellness and Learning) team hosted hands-on, experiential learning opportunities for students to prepare and eat locally sourced, organic meals with an emphasis on local food literacy, foodsheds, and sustainable practices. Farmhouse Fridays focused on the overall aspect of the trans-disciplinary approach to food and eating, linking health and sustainability together.

Cookbook Fridays focused on supporting the Green Action Fund awarded project for a 300-page printed book highlighting the food journeys at UCCS and was divided into 6 sections, each integrating program description, processes, and outcomes (recipes, events, courses, tools). Book sections are “Where our food comes from”; Food for Athletes; The Flying Carrot Food Literacy Truck; Food Next Door; Grain School; Farmhouse Fridays; From Farm to Institution. Students participated in the recipe testing, photography, layout, and of course eating the food they prepared, too!

These two programs hosted by SWELL have been interchangeable throughout the semesters depending on the needed support for the various projects. Trained student educators consisted of graduate students from the Master of Sciences in Sport Nutrition program. These students learn how to prepare and educate on topics of food literacy and lead the student participants in hands-on practices, including prepping food, cooking/baking food, and then eating together.

Both the Farmhouse Fridays and Cookbook Fridays encouraged residential students, commuter students, and had much interest from the undergraduate and graduate students from health sciences and human physiology & nutrition programs.

The SEAS (Students for Environmental Awareness and Sustainability) club created self-sustainability kits for student use. Through awareness of SEAS club and Green Action Fund through the opportunity to play sustainability themed games and win a kit that would enable any student to live a more sustainable daily life is a great way to achieve that. The daily items that were selected will enable any student to reduce their carbon footprint by giving them sustainable alternatives to single use products that they interact with on a day-to-day basis. While students are playing these sustainability-themed games to earn one of the prizes, SEAS members will educate their peers on why they should reduce or eliminate single-use from their personal lives and how SEAS is working to hold corporations accountable through data collection at creek clean-up events.

The items chosen are specifically because of their ability to replace unsustainable products in our daily lives: metal straws, beeswax food wrap, tote bag, bamboo utensils, bamboo toothbrush, fair trade cotton napkin, and double-wall insulated travel mug/bottle. These items are often too expensive for some students to access on their own. By creating these kits, SEAS hopes to raise awareness about sustainable organizations that offer these products while also offering the student body the opportunity to increase their personal sustainable actions, reduce their carbon footprint, raise awareness about sustainability and environmentalist activism on campus and in the community, as well as increasing participation in SEAS club, the Office of Sustainability, and GAF.

SEAS the Moment focuses on educating the UCCS student body by attending Student Life and other events to reach a broader audience than students already attending sustainability-related events.

https://recwellness.uccs.edu/nutrition/cookingevents
https://recwellness.uccs.edu/nutrition/recipes