Sara Vandersip

Sara is an undergraduate student in the Nutrition, Health and Society BSPH at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Gillings School of Global Public Health with a minor in food studies. She is working as a research assistant for Lindsey Smith Taillie, who is also advising her honors thesis on identifying key drivers of food waste and barriers to food waste reduction among young adults. Sara is passionate about promoting human and planetary health through improving food systems. Outside of GFRP, she is a sustainability intern for Carolina Dining Services and Co-Director of CompostMates, a student organization that provides a free food scrap collection service for off-campus UNC students to expand access to composting in Chapel Hill and Carrboro.

The first thing I learned to cook was… vegetable soup by my Grammy using her recipe. She grew up on a farm and know’s how to cook practically every vegetable that grows in NC.

My favorite food-related smell is… fresh baked banana bread — it’s nostalgic and is good in every season.

My most interesting food habit is… eating the skin on kiwis. It adds a nice tartness, especially on golden kiwis!