Caree Cotwright, a professor in the University of Georgia’s online Master of Science in Foods and Nutrition, Community Nutrition, was recently featured on the cover of the fall 2017 issue of FACS magazine. The article highlights her commitment to the fight against childhood obesity.

Cotwright has spent the better part of her young career engaged in outreach efforts aimed largely at curbing childhood obesity in little places like Monroe, Madison and all throughout Athens, and she’s training the next generation of researchers, teachers and dietitians to do the same. Food demonstrations are a big part of it, but so is theater, rapping, dancing, dressing up like a carrot or a kiwi or a pear or even as a charismatic, fruit and vegetable-loving frog named Freggie. Cotwright’s students have appeared as Freggie – and as singing, dancing, life-sized fruits and vegetables known as “Freggie’s Friends” – in Head Start classes scattered about the Athens area for the last three years to promote healthy eating.

“I simply want to be known as the lady who gets kids to eat their fruits and vegetables,” Cotwright said. “Whatever it is, if it’s a cooking cart demo, if it’s Freggie, if it’s me rapping, I’m going to make it fun and interesting and I’m going to meet you where you are.”

Cotwright’s passion, so evident in her classes and interactions with the community, is rooted in a heart for the hurting and hungry. In her early days as a researcher, she recalls volunteering at a local food bank on a food distribution day. The parking lot of the church was full of cars of folks needing food, and the line snaked down the street – right here in Athens.

The plague of hunger speaks to a troubling trend in what Cotwright calls the “war on wellness,” one she sees as a major obstacle in the low-income communities her efforts often target.

“I’m trying to tell you to eat healthy, but then I hear parents tell me ‘I give my children chips every day after school because I can afford 50 cents but I can’t afford to buy a bag of apples or other fresh fruit,’ ” she said. “They just want their child’s tummy full and they’re going to try to get cheap foods that make them full. That’s what touches my heart. I have to be really creative in terms of problem solving.”

One of Cotwright’s grand dreams is securing funding for “Freggie’s Green Machine,” a food truck that would deliver fresh fruits and vegetables to communities without access to them.

“My vision is to see kids chase the fruit and veggie truck the way they chase the ice cream truck,” she said.

“Overweight children become overweight adults and we’ve just perpetuated the problem,” she said. “So we can start to use children as change agents to change families and their behaviors. I think if we do that we’ll have healthy generations to come, and that’s my role, to leave the world a better place.” To that point, she sees progress, pointing to statistics showing steady decreases in the rates of childhood obesity in Georgia.

Cotwright has worked feverishly to build her own network – she calls it “pounding the pavement” – in the Athens community, forging relationships with schools and non-profits like the Northeast Georgia Food Bank, which serves 14 counties in northeast Georgia.

“We have all these people working on the problem,” Cotwright said. “If you hit a problem at a lot of different angles, you can make a difference, and I think that’s what’s happening.”

“You can tell she’s very passionate, but she’s also very compassionate,” said Bee Gee Elder, child nutrition manager of the Northeast Georgia Food Bank. “The very first time I met her, she gave me a hug – she said she was so excited to be working with us. Her face just lights up when she talks about the work she does.”

“If we can maintain that valuable resource, health, we just might have a better world,” Cotwright said. “This is my little way of doing it.”

Adapted from an article found in FACS Magazine authored by Cal Powell.