Public Health Nutrition students Rebecca Leighton and Samantha Mosbrucker placed first and second in the research poster competition held during the Association of State Public Health Nutritionists annual meeting in Minneapolis on June 13.

Leighton won the competition with a poster titled “Food Insecurity at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities: Understanding students’ experiences to shape a campus food pantry.”

“I interviewed food insecure students at the U of M because of the high prevalence rates of food insecurity on our campus and at other campuses across the country,” says Leighton, who was advised by Associate Professors Melissa Laska and Jamie Stang. “These findings were used to help create the first on campus food pantry at the U of M available to all students.

Mosbrucker was the runner-up for her research poster titled “Local, Healthy Food Procurement Practices Among Child Care Providers.”

“I was part of a research team here at the University of Minnesota that assessed the nutrition and physical activity environments of child care providers in Minnesota,” says Mosbrucker, who received guidance from Associate Professor Susie Nanney from the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health. “I specifically looked at child care providers’ current use of, or willingness to try, sustainable methods of acquiring food — including community supported agriculture, farmers markets, direct from farms and orchards, community gardens, and onsite gardens.”