Thanks to a generous donation from Dairy West and local dairy farm families, the College of Health’s Culinary Medicine program will receive $35,000 to enhance student learning, continue community health initiatives, and upgrade equipment.
Culinary Medicine aims to integrate students throughout the health sciences in a kitchen environment to explore the impact of food and nutrition on specific health outcomes. In 2016, the Department of Nutrition and Integrative Physiology (NUIP) partnered with the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine to bring the program to life. Since then, the program has steadily grown and developed community-engaged learning experiences for students. Theresa Dvorak, MS, RDN, associate professor in NUIP, serves as director.
The Culinary Medicine program will use the donation to meet several needs. The team will be able to enhance student learning by funding an additional teaching assistant, who can help provide guidance and feedback to students as they practice and refine their skills. Additionally, they’ll use funds to upgrade equipment, so community classes are effective in spaces with limited electrical capacity or challenging acoustics, like outdoors or in large lecture rooms.
“The additional teaching assistant will help to coordinate capstone experiences for health professional trainees to go out into the community and teach hands-on cooking classes and nutrition education in community spaces,” Dvorak said. “Especially communities that can’t easily attend a cooking class—they don’t have access to these type of educational opportunities like someone who is on our University of Utah campus.”
Dvorak began building relationships with registered dietitians on the Dairy West team at events and conferences. Once she introduced the concept of Culinary Medicine to the team, they wanted to learn more and help build on the program’s momentum. Since Dairy West serves the Mountain West and many Culinary Medicine students end up staying and working in the region, it was a perfect fit.
“We aim to work with organizations that are providing educational opportunities for future professionals to ensure they understand why all foods are important and recognizing dairy is an important part of that,” said Jaclyn St. John, RDN, Director of Health Promotions at Dairy West. “We’re excited to have this opportunity to empower students to understand the role they can play in a collaborative team, and bring nutrition experts alongside them in this practice.”
Dairy West actively seeks partnerships with programs that support healthy lifestyles and nutrition. The organization represents local dairy farm families across Idaho and Utah, and St. John said the team was excited to support the first culinary medicine program in their region.
In 2023, Dairy West gave an initial gift as part of a pilot program to Culinary Medicine. With this year’s commitment, they intend to help take the program to the next level, and their goal is to continue support for multiple years.
“We represent 450 local dairy farm families and want the community to know that they care about investing in the health of our region and our future medical professionals,” St. John said. “Culinary Medicine plays a key role in educating the community on the importance of diet and whole foods, and dairy is an essential part of our diets.”