Service learning across the lifecycle

Zoua Xiong, pre-psychology major and dietetics minor, in the food warehouse.


Mary Ann Marciel and Crystal Coon, dietetic Majors, work on nutrition questions they will use when interviewing clients.

By Dr. Connie Schneider, RD
Department of Food Science and Nutrition

One of the benefits of service learning is meeting community needs while enhancing the academic understanding of students. This semester 35 students in the Dietetics and Food Administration program’s “Nutrition Across the Lifecycle” class are working with Catholic Charities. Located on North Fulton Street in downtown Fresno, Catholic Charities is a nonprofit organization that provides a wide variety of services to needy families across the Central Valley, regardless of their faith background.

The primary task for the students is interviewing clients who need food assistance. The benefits for Catholic Charities are additional assistance for interviewing and the introduction of nutrition screening to assist with developing a data base. The benefits for students include developing interviewing techniques and learning how to integrate clients’ age-related nutritional needs with cultural and socioeconomic variables.

After the first week of service, Cathy Caples, interim executive directive of Catholic Charities, reported the students were “fantastic.” Due to a shortage of staff and regular volunteers for the food warehouse, the students stepped in to provide assistance. In concurrent classroom activities, students correlated nutritional needs with the food products available for clients.

As the semester continues, students will also provide basic nutrition education and develop specialized food drives. Catholic Charities has run out of shelf-stable individual packaged food items to provide “travel packs” for people who are homeless and do not have kitchen facilities. A second drive will focus on the holidays. If your class is interested in donating food products for these drives, please contact Connie Schneider at cschneider@csufresno.edu for additional information.