Superfund Research Program
November 2022
Sustainable eating: UK SRP Center staff and partners define sustainable eating as “choosing foods with low environmental impacts that contribute to human health and wellbeing.” They explained that sustainable eating protects biodiversity and ecosystems; fits with the local culture; is accessible to all and affordable; encompasses foods that are nutritionally adequate; is safe and healthful; and optimizes natural and human resources.
University of Kentucky (UK) Superfund Research Program (SRP) Center staff are teaching Kentucky residents to educate their communities about good nutrition and environmental stewardship. Staff members recently led two train-the-trainer events introducing tools and curricula for teaching adults and children.
The UK SRP Center’s expertise is in how dietary and lifestyle interventions can help protect against the harmful effects of environmental toxins. These events are the latest in the Center’s efforts to share actionable nutrition and lifestyle information across the state.
SRP Center staff Dawn Brewer, Ph.D., and Annie Koempel, Ph.D., and UK assistant professor of extension Heather Norman, Ph.D., partnered with the UK Cooperative Extension program for an event walking extension program agents through a new curriculum focused on sustainable eating.
The event leaders described what sustainable eating means, discussed ways to reduce food waste, talked about the health and environmental benefits of locally grown food, and introduced mindful eating—focusing on the food instead of distractions while eating—to improve health. The newly trained Extension agents will now begin piloting the curriculum in communities across Kentucky.
In another event, SRP Center trainees Jerika Durham and Victoria Klaus introduced planners and counselors at Cowan Community Center Kid's Camp in Letcher County, Kentucky, in the Appalachian Region, to kid-friendly experiments, activities, and lessons created by center staff. Koempel moderated the event.
The materials teach children about good nutrition, being good stewards of the environment, and how eating fruits and vegetables may protect them against environmental pollution. For example, one experiment demonstrates how vitamin C acts as an antioxidant. Another activity shows the stages of the scientific method and how to use it to identify potential environmental risks.
Events like these work toward the UK SRP Center’s Community Engagement Core goals by providing communities with actionable information, like nutrition advice, to increase people’s resiliency to the effects of environmental toxins.