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Student-run volunteer program receives national award
	The Dannon Institute has recognized the Penn State Nutrition Service Project, a student-run volunteer program, as one of the nation’s foremost innovative and significant programs in community nutrition education and communication.   The program was named a winner in the fourth annual Dannon Institute Awards for Excellence in Community Nutrition®, a national awards program created to celebrate the accomplishments of local nutrition programs.   As a Penn State sophomore in 1998, Annina Burns founded the program with several other students. More than 25 students are now regularly involved in the Nutrition Service Project, which involves a weeklong Spring Break Alternative. The Penn State students visit a central Pennsylvania high school and present programs on health and nutrition to students.   Burns, a major in nutrition and media studies in The Schreyer Honors College, and her colleagues created the Nutrition Service Project to teach disadvantaged children in a rural Pennsylvania community about health and nutrition. Through this project, Penn State students are trained in the areas of nutrition education, child development, diversity and health promotion and education.   Students work with local community members and teachers to identify health issues of the youth in an area and design programs based on community needs. They then go into a community as a team and apply what they have learned by teaching it to younger peers in grades seven to 12.   “The students involved in the Nutrition Service Project gain the experience of using an academic interest, applying it to community needs and helping solve social problems,” Burns said.   Since the project began, the Penn State students have contributed about 2,500 hours of volunteer service and reached 230 youth.