Eating Well for Less

Several years ago, faculty members who are also registered dietitians in Buffalo State’s Dietetics and Nutrition Department began developing a program, “Eating Healthy on a Budget.” As the economy has stretched everyone’s food dollars, their work has proved to be more relevant and far reaching than anyone could have anticipated.

Developed by assistant professor Donna M. Hayes, R.D., and associate professor Tejaswini Rao, R.D., the program features easy-to-follow charts that present ways to mix and match basic, healthful ingredients for meal planning. The charts allow individuals and families to make choices based on food preferences and availability, and to create a variety of dishes with minimal resources. The program also provides suggestions for making nutritionally complete meals and general shopping tips.

The initiative began as part of a grant from the Center for Development of Human Services (CDHS) to develop a program that would help foster families plan nutritious, affordable one-dish dinners. Today, the program also includes breakfasts, lunches, and snacks.

The program will be featured in an upcoming issue of Good Housekeeping magazine, with Buffalo State student Nancy McKelvey, who was introduced to the charts as a student of Hayes’s. Meal plans and tips from the program help her six-member family eat well for less money. Their weekly food budget is $200, including health, beauty, and cleaning supplies.

McKelvey graduated from Buffalo State in 1990 with a degree in food service management and returned to complete the requirements to become a registered dietitian. In Hayes’s classroom, she and other students were challenged to plan a week’s worth of healthful meals to feed themselves and their families under the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Thrifty Food Plan (from which food stamp allotments are derived).

Hayes and Rao used the Thrifty Food Plan in combination with the USDA’s MyPyramid dietary assessment tool to develop their “Eating Healthy on a Budget” program. McKelvey aced the assignment and continues to use the program to create a family culture of eating well affordably.

Buffalo State’s dietetics programs are accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Dietetics Education (CADE) of the American Dietetic Association. Buffalo State has the only CADE-accreditated coordinated program in dietetics in the State University of New York system. Graduates who pass the national registration exam for dietitian earn the credential of registered dietitian (RD).

The “Eating Healthy on a Budget” program can be found on the Dietetics and Nutrition Department’s Web site at www.buffalostate.edu/dietetics/eatinghealthy.xml.

back to top