Introducing Kara Harrison - summer guest blogger!

This is the first of a series of blog posts by Kara Harrison, a dietetics student from Michigan State University who will be working with us at the BHLC for the rest of the summer.

My name is Kara and I’ll be helping to keep the Kalamazoo Valley Healthy Living Blog up to date for the next few weeks. I’ll be writing about what’s going on around Kalamazoo, the Food Innovation Center, and more! But, before I get into all of that exciting stuff, I want to tell you a little about myself.

I attend Michigan State University and will be graduating this coming May with a Bachelor’s of Science in Dietetics with plans to become a registered dietitian. While at school, I am an intern at Spartan Performance where we take a holistic approach to training young athletes. As an intern, I teach everything from the basics of an athletic stance, sprint mechanics, strength training, mental skills, and nutrition at our clinic. I also go out to local schools and club sports teams to perform training sessions and give large group nutrition talks.

When I’m home for the summer, I work at the YMCA of Greater Kalamazoo in Portage; this summer is my sixth one working as a camp counselor at the Y. During my time at summer camp, I created a nutrition education activity for the campers. I called it “Fresh Food Friday” because every Friday I would bring in some type of fun, healthy snack that the kids and I could make together while learning a little bit about the nutrition aspects of the foods. The campers and my boss loved it so much that I began doing the activity at least three times per week! So, now it’s called Fresh Food Fun.

Being from the area (I went to Mattawan schools for all thirteen years), I am very excited to be working alongside the Food Innovation Center! The visions it’s working towards and projects that it will be taking on will be beneficial for the whole community. Something that we can all take part in and improve upon is sustainability! Learning more about sustainability and its practices is one reason why I’m looking forward to spending time at the Food Innovation Center this summer.

I will be keeping everyone updated on local farmer’s market finds and Food Innovation Center news. Until next time – thanks for reading!