Survey of 5,000 undergraduate students in 2025 Internal Advanced EDWith Generation Lab support, the largest student share was found to rate their nutrition on average (44%) at the university, while another 30% described their nutrition as below average or worse.
Many universities and universities are working hard to teach students appropriate nutritional habits and enable them to live a healthy life inside and outside the university.
Research: A 2023 literature review found that college students experienced a variety of risk factors that allowed them to uniquely position their dietary insecurity, including busy schedules and lack of nutritional food opportunities.
The report says students with cooking experience are less likely to face food insecurity, meaning those without cooking or food preparation skills may face food insecurity.
The report shows that universities can provide cooking and dining demonstrations to help students acquire skills and learn how to prepare low-budget, nutritious meals. A study cited in the literature review shows that increasing nutrition education, including food budgets and recipes, is a feature of the first year workshop.
Internal Advanced ED Five examples of nutrition education designed to address student health, food insecurity and malnutrition have been prepared.
- University of Memphis: BBQ Course
To help students use relevant tools and resources to cook, University of Memphis staff held lunchtime nutrition classes to teach students how to prepare and bake individual pizza.
The university charges students $15 to attend the class, which covers ingredients and lunch food, providing low-cost and casual introductions to basic culinary principles.
- University of North Dakota: Cooking Corner
On UND, students have the opportunity to lead their peers to cooking classes. The event is open to all campus members, including faculty and staff, and the health center’s long meetings teach students how to prepare simple meals.
Additionally, UND has a virtual demonstration library so students can teach themselves how to cook a variety of healthy recipes from anywhere, including honey glass salmon, chana masala or acai bowl. Each demo video has a student lecturer and recipe card for viewers to follow.
- Lewis College, University of Georgia Cooperation Expansion: Fulton Fresh University
This fall, Georgia State University students benefit from a pilot with free cooking demonstrations and nutrition courses hosted by two local agencies.
Fulton Fresh is a partnership between Lewis College and the University of Georgia Co-op extension, which typically educates older people in lower-income communities. However, in 2024, partners have made new products for college students who don’t necessarily know how to cook and prefer fast food or takeout.
This four-week innocence course offers students 10 pounds of produce per session, in addition to spices and a variety of kitchen tools.
- Iowa State University: Cooking Bootcamp
Iowa State University students can take a two-school course, Cooking Bootcamp, which provides nutritional education and culinary skills to promote a healthy life.
Courses offered since 2016 cover topics including safe storing food, reducing food waste, using recipes and shopping effectively for groceries, and more.
- Cornell University: Cooking with Cornell Restaurant
Cornell offers students the opportunity to learn from professionals: the campus dining team. Members hold events in the Discovery Kitchen in the campus dormitory where students can practice preparing plant-based dishes that they like.
The purpose is to help students learn to make healthy dishes that are both delicious and friendly.
Do you have health interventions that can help others promote student success? Tell us.
