Blue Devil Notebook: Healthy luncheon brings nutrition pros, students together
March is National Nutrition Month, and to celebrate, Merced College’s Foods and Nutrition Program recently hosted a healthy luncheon in recognition of Registered Dietitian Day.
About 20 local nutrition professionals representing the Women, Infants and Children program (WIC), Merced County Department of Public Health, Mercy Medical Center, Avalon Healthcare, Golden Valley Health Centers, Davita Dialysis and Satellite Health joined nutrition students and alumni to dine together on 10 foods.
“This is our second year hosting the luncheon and it has been so valuable for our students to have the opportunity to meet and hear advice from the local nutrition professionals,” said foods and nutrition professor Michelle Pecchenino.
“I am so appreciative of our landscape horticulture department for donating vegetable plants for centerpieces, to our Child Development Center for decorating bookmarks that depict the children’s favorite fruits and vegetables, and, finally, thanks to Taher Foods and Chef Rudy for creating such a tasty and nutritious meal experience.”
The annual event brings dietitians together to share announcements and volunteer projects for students.
“Through this sharing we discovered that students planning to transfer to CSU Fresno need to complete 240 nutrition-related volunteer hours for when they apply for their senior status, so this was an incredible networking occasion to connect our students to the professionals,” Pecchenino said.
With summer approaching, extra help is needed with feeding programs and nutrition education, she said.
“Our students are becoming more active in our community by planning and presenting cooking demonstrations and decorating educational bulletin boards and materials,” she said.
For more information on Merced College’s Foods and Nutrition Program, call (209) 384-6056.
Licensed vocational nurse students awarded scholarships
“I want to share some good news about our nursing students,” said nursing professor Kitty Cazares.
Five of Merced College’s licensed vocational nursing students were just notified they will receive $4,000 each from the Health Professions Education Foundation scholarship fund, she said.
“This particular scholarship is only for LVN students, and it is awarded primarily to students who are of diversity and who will work in an underserved area,” Cazares said.
The LVN students receiving awards are Susan Merza, Nakitta Mack, Alyson Catone, Rajninder Kaur and Mai Mona.
“Last May, nine of our (registered nurse) students received $10,000 each under the RN scholarship,” Cazares said.
They included Ravinder Kaur, Teng Thor, Mandeep Dhaliwal, Tiffany Randolph-Villanueva, Crystal Cummings, Michael Kumar, Bianca Luna, Maricela Nunez and Kayla Moran.
The RN fund is larger because the RN leadership of California sponsored a bill a few years back that takes $10 of each RN license renewal and puts it into this fund, Cazares said.
“With 398,000 licensed RNs in the state who have to renew every two years, there is a lot of money,” she said. “Since I was a recipient of a scholarship when I first became faculty from this fund, I make sure to promote this to students every fall.
“This year I talked with our radiology technology and sonography students. I hope that many more of our students will be notified in the next couple of months that they have also received money.”
Blue Devil Notebook is compiled by Merced College staff. It will run occasionally and contain news, information and events happening at the college.
This story was originally published March 25, 2015 at 6:49 PM with the headline "Blue Devil Notebook: Healthy luncheon brings nutrition pros, students together."