Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition
Extension
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523-1571
Healthy Heart Beats
July-September 2007
Vol 29, Issue 3
Spotlight
Diane Wenzel, MS, RD
Diane Wenzel, MS, RD, joined the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at Colorado State University in October 2006 as Youth Initiative Coordinator for the Food Stamp Nutrition Education (FSNE) Program. She works with limited resource school districts throughout Colorado to secure federal funding to bring nutrition education resources to this audience.
Currently, FSNE is supporting Colorado school districts in their efforts to bring the Harvest of the Month program to students. Harvest of the Month features one fruit or vegetable each month on school lunch menus and in educational messages in classrooms and take-home newsletters. For example, the tomato will be featured in September 2007 when Colorado school children go back to school. They will receive nutritional, growing and botanical information, recipes and cooking tips and teachers will get ideas for fun classroom activities featuring the tomato.
Previously, Diane was Director of Nutrition Services for the Windsor School District in northern Colorado. One area in which Diane focused her efforts was to create fruit and salad bars in all lunchrooms. Additionally, the school lunches contained less than 30% of calories from fat. Health measures such as these are necessary in schools which emphasize wellness. In recent years the health of our nation's children has continued to decline necessitating the need for ongoing wellness programs. Away from work Diane volunteers on the wellness advisory council for the Poudre School District in Fort Collins which has written a district-wide wellness policy targeting nutrition and physical activity in the school district.
A native of Ohio, Diane is a graduate of CSU's Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition master's program and enjoys being back on campus. Diane resides in Fort Collins with her husband and two sons, ages 7 and 9. She jokingly adds that they're a captive audience on which she can practice her passion for promoting wellness in children and their families.
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