As a busy college student, it’s sometimes easier just to heat up a bowl of noodles or grab a sub and call it dinner. Still, easy access to food doesn’t always mean it’s the healthiest option, and it was this idea that led marketing professor, Dr. Rob Boostrom and marketing honor society Mu Kappa Tau to create the Veg-A-Thon event.

The event originally started with a few students within the marketing honor society who launched the blueprint with the goal of helping students add more vegetables into their daily diet, according to Boostrom.

“We’ve got four students that have worked on a plan to hold an event to help promote the idea of eating more fruits and vegetables,” said Boostrom. “We’re hoping we can have this event and then follow it up with things on social media to promote the idea.”

The Old Main Ballroom in the University Center was lined with booths during the Monday night event and included lots of different organizations on campus and around the community with a similar goal to that of the event’s creators.

UW-Dining Services shared a few healthy recipe alternatives to some classic college kid favorites, including a healthier kind of salsa, while GroceryCo, the new grocery store cooperative taking over Whitewater, spread the word for their new, healthier shopping option coming soon to the city.

Brienne Brown, one of the founders and advocators of the co-op believed believe that sharing the message with students and future customers was a must for their own health.

“The best medicine is good food,” said Brown.

“So to have a bunch of people here explaining why that’s important, I think is the key thing.”

And Jessica Rossignol, a UW-Whitewater senior who helped work on the initiative can agree.

She and the marketing team believe that students don’t always realize how easy it is improve their diet.

“It’s really easy for us to just not eat fruits and vegetables, they’re inconvenient. And I think that having the different aspects here broadens the horizons for the students shows them that fruit and vegetables are accessible to students. You just have to know where to find them.”