Civic Engagement

April 9, 2013 
4:15 - 5:45p.m.
Reuter Center Room 102A

What We Know Can Kill Us: Hunger, Obesity, and Policy Gaps in the USA

Dr. Batada's talk will highlight the connections between food insecurity and obesity in the USA and the significant costs to our society.  At the heart of the issue is the importance of healthy food over any food, and the role of government and corporate policies to support healthy choices.  She will discuss how policies pertaining to school foods, marketing, labeling, and taxation are outdated compared to current nutrition and social sciences, and how we can take action personally and politically to reduce and prevent obesity and improve access to and consumption of healthy foods in our communities.

Ameena Batada, DrPH, is an assistant professor in the Health and Wellness Department at the University of North Carolina Asheville.  Dr. Batada teaches courses on health parity, maternal and child health, community health promotion, and health communication.  Her research focuses on the influence of media on nutrition and health, particularly among children, as well as on community health issues and interventions.  Before joining UNCA, she was director of education, research, and outreach at Sesame Workshop India in New Delhi, and prior to that she worked at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), advocating for limits on junk-food marketing to children and for national school nutrition standards.  Dr. Batada holds a DrPH in health communication from the department of population and family health sciences at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, an MPH in maternal and child health with a certificate in international health from UNC Chapel Hill, and a BA in international studies from UNC Chapel Hill.  Dr. Batada lives in Asheville with her husband, father-in-law, two sons, and terrier mix, and she enjoys cooking, hiking, yoga, and printmaking.

Service Opportunity: "Hands On" Healthy Cooking

Date: April 23, 2013
Time: Shift 1 - 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
           Shift 2 - 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Location:  UNC Asheville Sherill Center Testing Kitchen, Room 346

OLLI members are invited to volunteer at the Sherrill Center Test Kitchen on UNC-Asheville’s campus. There, volunteers will learn about the Rainbow In My Tummy program, and its impact on child-hood nutrition. Be part of the effort to test current RIMT recipes that will be shared with families and new recipes that will be incorporated into the program, benefitting young children.

Rainbow In My Tummy:
The mission of the Rainbow In My Tummy® program is to improve the quality of food served to young children. Through nutrition awareness and consumption of diverse, healthy, nutritious foods when tastes are first formed in young children, lifelong preferences for fresh, non-processed food choices are promoted. The likelihood of obesity and obesity related diseases now and in the future is reduced. What an incredible gift to give our children!

Rainbow In My Tummy® menus and recipes:
1. Increase the consumption of high-quality, nutritious whole foods 
2. eliminate ingredients such as trans-fats and high fructose syrup from the diet
3. minimize salt and sugar intake
4. and increase intake of essential vitamins and minerals through a diet rich in a “rainbow of colors.”

To Register:  Call or email Laurel Jernigan: 828.250.3871 / ljerniga@unca.edu

More Information:
Rainbow in My Tummy website