Notes from the VRG Scientific Department

VRG Nutrition Advisor Reed Mangels, PhD, RD, was interviewed about vegetarianism for the San Jose Mercury News and for The University Daily Kansan, the University of Kansas' student newspaper. Also, she was interviewed for an article about vegan infants in the New York Daily News and for an article about the protein needs of vegetarians in Vegetarian Times. In September, her article, “Vegetarian Diets: Good For You!” was published in AV Magazine, the magazine of the American Anti-Vivisection Society. Both Reed and VRG Nutrition Advisor Suzanne Havala Hobbs, DrPH, RD, were interviewed by Natural Health magazine for a story about low-carb diets for vegetarians in October. VRG's Food Service Advisor Nancy Berkoff, RD, EdD, CCE, did an interview about healthy cooking for Thanksgiving on WOLB-AM 1010, an African-American radio station in Baltimore. She also did several radio interviews about healthy, vegetarian holiday cooking in the Los Angeles area.

VRG Provides Educational Materials For GA School Food Service Directors

VRG Nutrition Advisor Suzanne Havala Hobbs, DrPH, RD, was a featured speaker at the annual School Food Service Directors Conference sponsored by the Georgia Department of Education in Athens, Georgia, October 19-21, 2004. Sue's session explored issues concerning the addition of vegetarian options to school meals. She presented results of an in-depth, national survey of school food service directors that focused on practical advice for food service managers who want to include more vegetarian foods on school menus. Survey data was collected and compiled over the summer by Christina Niklas, a VRG summer intern and master's degree student in public health from the University of Illinois at Chicago. We will share these findings with VJ readers later this year.

In addition to Sue's presentation, VRG provided nutrition education materials and samples of Vegetarian Journal and VJ's Foodservice Update to the 225 food service directors in attendance. VRG also provided copies of Vegan in Volume, Meatless Meals for Working People, and Simply Vegan as raffle prizes at the conference.

VRG Outreach

VRG's Food Service Advisor Nancy Berkoff, RD, EdD, CCE, wrote her quarterly Chef on Call column about entertaining with healthy, gourmet vegetarian foods. She also continued her syndicated column on healthy produce and a column on gourmet produce that appears three times each month for the Orange County Register (California). In addition, in late January she did a seminar for the National Association of College and University Food Service (NACUFS) in San Diego on purchasing and utilizing vegetarian ingredients for college and university students. In February, she did two presentations, one on kosher and vegetarian cuisine for KosherWorld, a conference, in Los Angeles and one on food service sanitation and vegetarian menu concerns for the L.A. County Food Bank.