The Student Health Center celebrated National Nutrition Day by distributing information and free merchandise to educate the UNM community about healthy eating habits.
"It encouraged me to be more nutritious," said Justin Richter, a junior family studies major. "I've been educated by free stuff."
Booths were set up outside Zimmerman Library with information, games, goodie bags, free smoothies, Subway sandwiches, Einstein's Bagels and free massages to entice student participation.
"The food was an incentive to check it out, but the real value is the information," said senior engineering major Omar Negrete.
Booths at the event included New Mexico Sports and Wellness, Women, Infants and Children, a federally funded supplemental food program, and the Student Health Center displayed services they offer for diabetics.
"It's a great idea because I don't think that students know what is available at the Student Health Center," Negrete said.
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Coordinator Angelique Olson, a senior community health major, said there were other programs or organizations that were going to attend, but didn't make it.
Olson organized the event as part of a peer education class she is taking through the Student Health Center. As part of the class, she had to pick a national event and make contacts with groups and businesses to put it together.
Einstein's Bagels donated bagels, La Posada and Sun Valley Fruit donated fruit and Subway provided a huge sandwich that was devoured within the first half hour of the event.
"It's very important information," senior nursing major Claudia Torres said. "With all the fast food we have today, we need to be aware of healthier eating habits."
Torres thought a good example of that was offering bagels instead of donuts.
"It's good to let people know this is the food we should be eating," said sophomore psychology major Patrick Greenough.
Olson said there was spin-the-wheel and health trivia game bags, and anyone who spun the wheel and answered the question, regardless of accuracy received a bag of merchandise relevant to health awareness.
"We're just trying to educate people," Olson said.
Olson made fruit smoothies for people, and New Mexico Sports and Wellness offered free power shakes.
There were massage therapists from the UNM Wellness Center on hand and therapists from Universal Therapy Massage gave free 15-minute massages.
"It's a good resource for our students," said Shirlee James-Johnson, manager of the Health Education program at the Student Health Center. "It lets students know what's available and also makes it fun."
