Back-to-Campus Wellness: A Toolkit for College Wellness Teams
The first year on campus is where lifelong eating habits get made — or unmade. Between dining halls, vending machines, energy drinks, ramen budgets, and finals-week stress, students are navigating food decisions on their own for the first time. That's exactly why more universities are putting nutrition front and center during orientation and all year long.
Whether you run a campus wellness center, health promotion office, dining services program, or a peer-education team, here's a ready-to-use toolkit — organized by the real challenges your students face — to help them build good habits from day one.
1. Make a “balanced plate” something they can touch
Telling a 19-year-old what a balanced meal looks like rarely sticks. Handing them the food and letting them build it does. Our new Build-a-Plate Nutrition Teaching Kit gives students 18 realistic, colorful food models and a teaching plate — then a free app grades the plate they build, right on their phone. It's the most hands-on way to teach the plate method at a tabling event, a dorm workshop, or a one-on-one session. Pair it with the MyPlate JUMBO Poster, the Eat-from-the-Rainbow plate, and the MyPlate Health Fair Banner for orientation events.
2. Help them eat well on a student budget
A large share of college students experience food insecurity, and nearly all of them are watching every dollar. Budget-friendly nutrition is the single most relevant topic you can lead with.
- Healthy Shopping on a Budget PowerPoint & Handouts — a ready-to-present workshop.
- MyPlate On a Budget Tearpad — 50 take-home handouts for tabling.
- Healthy On A Budget: 4 Steps Poster for the dining hall or pantry.
- Community Nutrition Poster Bundle — 12 budget-eating posters at 60% off.
3. Rethink the drink with Sip Smart
Sugary coffees, sodas, and energy drinks are a campus staple. Our Sip Smart line makes the “how much sugar is in that?” moment land hard.
- Sip Smart Guide Poster for residence halls and dining areas.
- Sip Smart Hydration Tearpad and Sip Smart Bookmarks as easy giveaways.
- Don't Drink Your Calories PowerPoint & Handout Lesson.
- “How Much Sugar?” Test-Tube Display — an unforgettable tabling visual.
4. Decode the dining hall and the food label
Students face endless grab-and-go choices with no parent doing the shopping. Label literacy turns confusion into confidence.
- Food Label Lab PowerPoint — a myth-busting, interactive lesson.
- “The Label Says” Nutrition Facts Game.
- The 5 Mistakes of Label Reading Poster.
5. Support stress, sleep, and mental health
Stress eating, all-nighters, and mental health are inseparable from how students eat. Our Good Food Good Mood line makes that connection explicit.
- Good Food Good Mood Poster and Good Food Good Mood Tearpad.
- Stress Eating & Food Cravings PowerPoint & Handout Lesson.
- Diet & Sleep Poster for residence halls.
- 9 Habits for Positive Mental Health Poster and the Healthy Habit Stack Poster.
- Mental Health & Self-Care Poster Bundle — seven posters.
6. Run a semester of workshops without building from scratch
Your RDs and peer educators are stretched thin. Ready-to-present programs let anyone lead a great session.
- 12 Lessons of Wellness PowerPoints & Program — a full semester of turnkey lessons.
- Women's Health Bootcamp and Lighten Up Your Cooking.
7. Stock your welcome-week table
Orientation and health fairs are your biggest reach of the year. Draw a crowd and send everyone home with something.
- Healthier Choices 123 Wellness Fair Banner.
- “Think Positive” Mental Health Wristbands — easy giveaways students keep.
Start with the plate they'll remember. Pair the Build-a-Plate Kit and its free app with a few posters and take-home handouts, and you've got an interactive station that works at orientation, in the residence halls, and all semester long. Shop the full Campus & College Wellness collection →
