TU Dublin Healthy Campus Cookbook launch
TU Dublin celebrated the publication of the first-ever Healthy Campus Cookbook at a launch event on the Grangegorman campus on 24 May, 2024.
The event gathered over 40 students and staff who participated in the creation of the cookbook, as well as special guest, National Healthy Campus Co-Ordinator at the HEA, Caroline Mahon.
Download a digital copy of the TU Dublin Healthy Campus Cookbook here.
Twenty-six students and staff submitted 35 healthy, delicious and sustainable recipes to the cookbook under categories of breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert. As part of the competition, four contributors were selected to receive a prize in one of four categories:
- Best Nutritional Rating – Margaret Brennan
- Lowest Emission Scoring Per Serving – Laura Gansch
- Best Innovation– Food Waste – Shauna Lawlor
- Best Food Photo - Niamh Yep
TU Dublin's Vice President for Partnerships, Thomas Stone, opened the celebratory event with an address which highlighted the success of the TU Dublin Healthy Campus programme and the positive impact it brings to students and staff. Speaking at the event Thomas Stone said:
As a signatory to Ireland’s Higher Education Authority, Healthy Campus Charter and Framework, TU Dublin commits to taking a whole-of-campus approach to creating a learning environment and organisational culture to ensure good health and well-being within our community. The Healthy Campus Cookbook is one such initiative drawing on this approach, from the N-TUTORR sponsorship of the Healthy Campus Sustainable Internship, with Laura Kestell and Sarah Healy, final year students from the Public Health Nutrition programme at TU Dublin as main authors, overseen by Dr Teresa Hurley, Healthy Campus Lead with academic supervisors, Dr Aileen Kennedy and Richard Kelly, design input by Rebecca Flanagan in Sustainability, recipe submissions by students and staff, and HEA Healthy Campus funding to support the initiative.
TU Dublin Healthy Campus Lead, Dr Teresa Hurley, commended students Laura Kestell and Sarah Healy on the creation of the book, saying:
Congratulations to the Healthy Campus Cookbook lead authors, Laura Kestell and Sarah Healy on coordinating such a successful resource. Both the girls completed a nine-month N-TUTORR sponsored sustainability placement with Healthy Campus as part of the final year of their Public Health & Nutrition Programme. During this time, the Healthy Campus Cookbook was just one of the many University-wide initiatives that Laura and Sarah organised and assisted with.
Speaking at the launch, HEA, Senior Executive Officer and Healthy Campus Co-Ordinator, Caroline Mahon, said:
Since 2022, the HEA is responsible for the progression of the Healthy Campus Charter and Framework across the system, and we understand that student, and staff, health and wellbeing are intrinsically linked to student success and the core objectives of higher education.... We know that the work of Healthy Campus, while supporting individual behaviour change, at its core, aims to create a supportive environment for students and staff and the development of a healthy campus cookbook is a great action amongst a breath of actions that support students and staff to enjoy better nutrition and support their health and wellbeing and that of the planet.
Many thanks to all the student and staff contributors; Linda Murray, Ruth Ninan, Tracey Roche, Margaret Brennan, Abigail Bacon, Laura Gansch, Yara Mohamed, Niamh Yep, Emerald Proctor, Ellen Gaffney, Thana Elshaafi, Kate Flanagan, Nathan Farrell, Furong Tian, Elizabeth Codjoe, Gizem Kara, Rebecca Flanagan, Emma O'Brien, Christeen Saparamadu, Nicholas Herbert, Adam O Connell, Shauna Lawlor, Fiona Canning, Sophie Buckley, Aileen Kennedy, Giana Nuncio.
TU Dublin Healthy Campus is a strategic programme which is operated from the TU Dublin Sustainability Office and is a University-wide initiative supporting TU Dublin's community of students and staff to achieve United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3: Good Health & Well-Being.
The programme will continue in the next academic year with a series of engaging events and activities, as well as practical supports, which promote a healthy lifestyle.