Amelia Rowniewski, a first-year public health major at American University (AU), delivered a presentation titled ‘Bite Sized Nutrition Banter’ at the Mathias Student Research Conference on April 6th. The research delved into the awareness levels among AU college students regarding the nutritional public health implications of wasted food. This project stemmed from her final assignment in the American University Complex Problems course, ‘Food for Thought: Why Waste?’, which she completed last semester.
The “Food for Thought: Why Waste?”, created by Dr. Hannah Jardine (AU Center for Teaching, Research, and Learning) and taught by Dr. Kristine Beran (AU Department of Environmental Science), course explores how we should, as individuals and as a society, reduce wasted food and create a more resilient food system. Students apply diverse perspectives to understand and address the complex problem of wasted food. Students are exposed to a scope of up-to-date research from sociocultural, health, technological, environmental, economic, political, and justice-oriented lenses through guest speakers, multimedia resources, and community engagement on and off campus. They develop critical thinking, research, and presentation skills by conducting their own examination of the problem of wasted food and proposing solutions.
For more information, please reach out to wastedfood@american.edu.