As a professional, I believe that it is important to volunteer and give back to the community in which you live. To be honest this can be tough. We are all busy and finding time to set aside a few hours to do something to help others is challenging, but it is always worth it!
This last weekend I had the opportunity to volunteer and help to run a booth at a Girl Scout event in downtown Indianapolis. The Girl Scouts had a day long event at the Indiana State Museum = Circle the City. It was an amazing event, filled with lots of great opportunities for these girls to get to learn new things and interact with businesses/organizations from around the state of Indiana. I helped to put together a booth that was hosted by the Indiana Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. We had done this booth before, but this year I wanted to make it more interactive and get these girls excited to learn about nutrition, safe handling of food and get to make something to taste test. I knew to pull this off it would take some time, partnerships with other organizations and then volunteers to make this happen.
Over the last few months I worked to coordinate with some other organizations here in Marion County to help make this booth possible. I was able to work closely with the Indiana Dairy Association. They let us borrow their smoothie bike, which was a HUGE hit. The girls loved being able to ride the bike and make smoothies. They also donated chocolate milk and yogurt for us to use, along with some handouts and cups. I can not say enough good things about the Dairy Association and their support nutrition education. I was able to obtain some bananas from Fresh Thyme as well to go into the smoothie recipe. IAND has worked with Fresh Thyme in past years for nutrition education in the state Indiana and they are a very generous company. I worked with Purdue Extension as well to have a hand washing station. We used a black light and glo germ and taught the girls how to properly wash their hands before they made their smoothies. Our last station was where the girls could create their own MyPlate and we talked about the food groups and what foods they liked in each of the food groups.
All of this would not have been possible without volunteers to make this booth happen. Obviously with three stations there was a lot going on and we needed help with RDs from around the state. We got some students from IUPUI and IU to come and volunteer for the day. I was so thankful for those 4 girls that were able to come and spend the day giving out nutrition information to lots of Girl Scouts. Our IAND president, Samantha made the trip up as well and helped get things set up. My amazing co-worker, Kate also helped me transport supplies, which was fantastic.
All in all the day was a huge hit and everyone that came had a great time. We were able to reach lots of girls and hopefully help teach them a little about nutrition. I would have loved seeing more RDs from around the city and state some out and support this volunteer opportunity. I think that taking a few hours to give back is something that all of us should do. It can be volunteering with a professional organization, with your church, with another non-profit group or for anything that you feel passionate about. Find something to give some time back to before the end of the year. How do you want to make a difference in your community?
