Prizes available for vaccinated employees

Vaccinated Employees Eligible for Free Gift

Faculty and staff who are fully vaccinated or currently getting vaccinated against COVID-19 are eligible to receive their choice of a UT-branded gift item while supplies last. Gift items include hammocks, portable Bluetooth speakers, mugs, tumblers, water bottles, and fanny packs. Employees can present their VolCard and vaccination card to choose their gift on September 1 between 1 and 4 p.m. across from Steak ’n Shake on the first floor of the Student Union.

Upcoming Events

September 8th - Virtual Chair Yoga
September 16th - Virtual Cooking Class

Move More

Sign up to join the 9th annual Sprint for the Prints race, sponsored by the University of Tennessee College of Nursing Student Nurses' Associaiton.

Every year, the organization hosts a 5k to raise money for the Precious Prints Project, a nonprofit organization that brings comfort to families by providing them with a necklace pendant bearing the fingerprint of their lost child. The run also serves as a memorial, to honor those families whose children have passed on.

This year the 5k will be held virtually, September 18th-25th. The cost of registration is $35 and a t-shirt is included. Click here to register.

Eat Well

Program Opportunity

Weight Watchers at Work has returned to the University of Tennessee Knoxville and is actively recruiting new members for this fall. The 12 week weight management sessions will be held on Wednesdays from noon-1pm in the Student Union.

WW is actively seeking a group of at least 15 people to participate. The $139 member fees covers all 12 meetings, weigh-ins, and WW tools.

For more information, contact Gwen (WW rep) at gwen@wwmet.net
or (865)368-0308.

The Big Orange Pantry

The Big Orange Pantry is addressing food insecurity on campus by providing emergecy food assistance to UTK students, faculty, and staff. 1/3 of all college students face food insecurity and 11.7% of UTK employees experience low to very low food security (UTK ACHA-NFSHA, Fall 2019).

New this semester is the Food4All program, which is a partnership between the Big Orange Pantry and the UT Culinary Institute (located within the College of Education, Health and Human Sciences, Department of Retail, Hospitality and Tourism Management). The Food4All program aims to end hunger and waste on campus by collecting usable food from campus outlets and transporting the food to the Culinary Institute where the food is transformed by students into ready-to-heat and ready-to-eat meals that are distributed to those with food insecurity through The Big Orange Pantry.

How to Get Involved:

If you are seeking food assistance, register to order food here.
If you would like to volunteer at the Big Orange Pantry, sign up via the Jones Center for Leadership and Service.
If your office would like to volunteer as a group, email Evan Oliver (eoliver9@vols.utk.edu).
If you would like to organize a food drive in your office, email bigorangepantry@utk.edu.

Families Becoming Healthy Together

The Healthy Eating and Activity Laboratory at the University of Tennessee Knoxville has a grant from the National Institutes for Health to provide a medically recommended program for families to help children get to a healthier weight. This program is called Families Becoming Healthy Together. The program is 18 months long and is provided at no cost to families.

Families Becoming Healthy Together was developed to help families, including children and parents, achieve a healthier weight status by learning healthy eating and activity behaviors. This is the only program in the Knoxville area that meets current recommendations for treating childhood overweight and obesity.

This program is especially important for Tennessee. According to The Commonwealth Fund’s scorecard on state health system performance evaluation in 2018, 38% percent of children in Tennessee have overweight or obesity compared to the national rate of 31%. Having overweight or obesity can increase the risk of developing weight-related diseases in adulthood, like cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and type-2 diabetes. Chronic illnesses like these can be difficult to deal with, decrease the quality of a person’s life, and cost a lot of money.

Parents:
If you are at least 18 years old, are 20-75 pounds away from your ideal weight, and have a child between the ages of 8-12 years, you may be eligible to take part in this research study.

The research study is designed to:
• Help families be healthy.
• Learn about nutrition and physical activity.
• Learn ways to develop a healthy lifestyle.

To see if you qualify, call the Healthy Eating and Activity Laboratory (865)-974-0752.

Recipe of the Month

Perfect for Tailgating: Loaded Mini Pepper Nachos

Be Mindful

Wellness Warrior

The Wellness Warrior Award is given to individuals across campus who are nominated by their peers for leading by example and inspiring through action as they work to create a healthier lifestyle.

The Wellness Warrior award for the month of September is awarded to Kendra Patterson. Kendra works in the Accounts Payable department and has been a member of the UTK family for 4 years. In her free time, she enjoys reading, walking, swimming, tennis, and crocheting.

We asked Kendra what inspires her to make healthier choices and live a healthy lifestyle and she said that being a Wellness Champion for her department has encouraged her to model healthy behaviors and set a good example for her colleauges. "I want to be a better person in all aspects and choosing a healthy lifestyle makes this more obtainable for me."

When asked if she had a success story to share, Kendra shared that the pandemic really created an opportunity for her to try new things. "I used this opportunity to do something new and I started with running. I found a local park nearby and chose to run the trails and work on my mile time. I may not be the fastest runner, but I was able to improve my mile time from 18 minutes to 12 (and that’s with hills!). I also started to incorporate jump rope into my outdoor routine. It was very embarrassing in the beginning, but now I am comfortable with the movement and don’t smack my legs as often with the rope! Kendra said the key to her success is making little goals to keep her on track and so that she can feel accomplished when she finally completes them.

"I encourage you to try something you haven’t before and see if you like it! Whether it’s hula hooping or joining a kickboxing class, you just never know what you can accomplish when you put your mind to it."

Congratulations Kendra, and thank you for being a model of health and wellness on UT's Campus!

Do you know someone who you feel is deserving of the Wellness Warrior award? Please fill out a nomination form to have their story told.

Manage your preferences | Opt out using TrueRemove®
Got this as a forward? Sign up to receive our future emails.
View this email online.

1800 Volunteer Blvd
Knoxville, TN | 37916 US

This email was sent to .
To continue receiving our emails, add us to your address book.