is often new to her students. She teaches them to ask
how well the people who pick crops are paid and cared
for, whether their rights are protected, whether they
work in decent conditions. And she encourages another
set of questions: “What’s the food value? What’s the
impact on the country and its oil? How much oil are
we using up when we eat a tomato from Argentina
rather than waiting to have our own happy little tomato
that comes from the Carrboro Farmers’ Market?”
Some of her students are dubious, she says. Business
majors, for instance, tend to question critiques of
industrial agriculture. “You’re too quick to criticize a
system that’s going to provide food for the world,”
they’ll say. “Small-scale farming would be impossible.
How could those farmers grow enough food?” Other
students will come back with arguments about how
small-scale farming could work.
UNC students gave Amanda Holliday the idea for
the wide-ranging project that in 2007 became Healthy
Heels.
What started as a club to increase awareness of
healthy eating on campus soon was partnering with
Carolina Dining Services to provide cooking lessons
and demonstrations on how to prepare healthy meals
in a dorm room.
“We realized they didn’t have a lot of equipment,”
said Holliday, clinical assistant professor of nutrition and
director of the master’s program in public health nutri-
tion in the Gillings Global School of Public Health.
“They usually had a spoon and bowl and could access
a stove and microwave. We started them on hands-on
cooking demos with our equipment on how to cook.
For our first event, we had more than 100 students
come.”
In a teaching kitchen in the school, Holliday also
teaches healthy preparation and eating to cancer
patients and others, including those with nutrition
genetic disorders that prevent them from eating certain
proteins or force them to limit fat intake.
What started
as a club
to increase
awareness
of healthy eating
on campus soon
was partnering
on how
to prepare
healthy meals
in a dorm room.
Paul A. Godley, MD, PhD, Medical Oncology
N.C. Cancer Hospital
Karla Werner, Cancer Survivor
The state-of-the-art N.C. Cancer Hospital, clinical home of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, is now open in
Chapel Hill, N.C. Built on three decades of excellence in patient care and groundbreaking cancer research at the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and supported by a team of world-class physicians, leading-edge technology, comprehensive
patient support and innovative clinical trials, the N.C. Cancer Hospital offers new hope and possibilities for those facing cancer.
THE NC CANCER HOSPITAL
