Food Systems, Nutrition, and Health

In the News


January 8, 2025

Autumn 2024 marks highest demand in UW Food Pantry history

Outside students line up to access the UW Food Pantry

UW Food Pantry donations for fall quarter of 2024 included 12% of donations from food drives, 11% from individual donations, and 15 to 20% came from on-campus dining facilities. Through work conducted by student capstone teams in winter 2024, the Pantry gleans unused food from UW in order to increase sustainability in providing resources to…


December 11, 2024

Mayor Harrell Releases Updated “Food Action Plan” to Guide City Policies and Programs, Increase Food Security in Seattle

Yona Sipos

Yona Sipos, core faculty in the Food Systems, Nutrition, and Health program is quoted in this recent post by the City of Seattle Mayor’s office, remarking, “The recently updated plan provides an impressive vision of how we can all pursue equity, sustainability, and resilience for our City and region. Food and food systems can truly…


October 9, 2024

Project 2025 Calls for Major Cuts to the US Nutrition Safety Net

Pia Chaparro

Civil Eats spoke with Assistant Professor Pia Chapparro about the potential devastating impacts that Project 2025 could have on food security and hunger if SNAP work requirements were tightened. Chapparo cites existing research and said, “Research shows that SNAP participation reduces food insecurity but does not act a disincentive to work. Moreover, research shows that…


August 14, 2024

The health benefits of fruits and vegetables: taste the rainbow

Anna Fogel

UW Medicine Dietitian and alumna (MPH/GCPD ’22) Anna Fogel breaks down the health benefits of fruits and vegetables in an article published by The Whole U. Fogel give a dietitian’s perspective on the health benefits of getting a variety in your diet, as well as the benefits by color.


June 17, 2024

Faculty profile: Anne Lund

Anne Lunde

Graduate Coordinated Program in Dietetics Program Director Anne Lund discusses her ongoing initiative to integrate topics related to equity, diversity, and inclusion into the University of Washington’s two-year dietetics curriculum.


April 29, 2024

New book explains the connection between food and fertility

Screenshot television appearance featuring Judy Simon

Dr. Angela Thyer and Registered Dietician and Clinical Instructor Judy Simon talk about their book “Getting to Baby” on Seattle’s New Day Northwest, explaining how diet and lifestyle can affect fertility.


April 1, 2024

New book ‘Getting to Baby’ offers advice for boosting fertility

Judy Simon

Judy Simon is interviewed by The Seattle Times about her a new book she co-authored that offers advice for boosting fertility through optimal nutrition, using an evidence-based, compassionate approach. Simon is a fertility expert and registered dietitian at University of Washington Medicine and a clinical instructor in the Food Systems, Nutrition, and Health Program. This…


April 1, 2023

Science Debunks a Decades-Old Myth About Drinking Milk

Illustration of milk with calcuations noted in margins

“Consuming dairy, like cow’s milk, is not culturally included in all dietary patterns,” says Michelle Averill, a nutritional sciences professor at the University of Washington School of Public Health. “So it’s an assumed acculturation recommendation to say, ‘Drink milk.’”


March 13, 2023

How WA food banks are handling a hunger cliff

Food bank employee carries box of vegetables

The state of food insecurity in Washington state, as changes in federal law that will end $95 million a month in food assistance. Recently published new data from a UW and WSU survey highlights that food insecurity was highest in households made up of people of color, families with children, and among renters.


Fund food insecurity response in WA — and demand national fix

Crowd lines up outside Seattle food bank

Editorial featured in Seattle Times highlights legislative House bill 1784 which provides aencies charged with making sure those who are food insecure are asking the state for an emergency infusion of $28 million to help increase inventories at food banks and other agencies purchasing food and supplies, help manage storage facilities, food delivery and logistics,…



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