New culinary nutrition and food safety associate joins Cooperative Extension Service
By Rebekah Hall
U of A System Division of Agriculture
Sept. 26, 2024
Fast Facts:
- Quadarius Whitson will lead food preservation, food safety programming
- Whitson to become registered dietitian
- Whitson has master’s in nutritional sciences from University of Georgia
(910 words)
(Newsrooms: With art)
LITTLE ROCK — Quadarius Whitson knows food provides more than just sustenance.
“Food brings people together, and it brings nourishment to the soul,” said Whitson, who will share his love of food — along with his passion for nutrition education — with Arkansans across the state.
As the new culinary nutrition and food safety program associate for the Cooperative Extension Service, Whitson will help develop programming and train family and consumer sciences agents in food preservation, food safety, culinary skills and nutrition education. He will also develop social media content on food preservation methods to help counteract dangerous misinformation available online.
The Cooperative Extension Service is part of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
Whitson began with extension on Sept. 16, and he said he’s most looking forward to collaborating with his extension coworkers.
“I think what really makes the Cooperative Extension Service special is the people, so I’m super excited to get to know everyone and make these connections so we can better Arkansans’ health overall,” Whitson said.
Nina Roofe, assistant vice president of family and consumer sciences for the Division of Agriculture, said Whitson “brings great experience and energy” to the department.
“His work will support family and consumer sciences agents to deliver food preservation, ServSafe training, and cooking schools to Arkansans of all ages in their local communities,” Roofe said.
Extension experience
Whitson is a native of Talladega, Alabama, and received his Bachelor of Science degree in Hospitality and Culinary Management from Jacksonville State University in 2022. He received his Master of Science in Nutrition from the University of Georgia in August 2024. Whitson is also currently preparing to become a registered dietitian.
Whitson completed his graduate studies and dietetic internship at the University of Georgia, where he worked alongside the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service on his research. He said the experience helped inform his decision to join the Cooperative Extension Service with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
As part of his research in the number one peanut-producing state in the United States, Whitson focused on assessing parents’ and caregivers’ knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about introducing common food allergens — specifically peanuts — during the complementary feeding phase of a child’s life, when they start eating food in addition to formula or breast milk.
“That’s during the four-to-six-month range for babies,” Whitson said. “If you introduce those allergens early and often during that time, it actually reduces the likelihood that they’ll develop that food allergy later on in life. We were trying to assess what parents and caregivers knew, and what some of the barriers to implementing that would be for them — figuring out how we could help them.”
Culinary roots
In high school, Whitson took a family and consumer sciences course, where his interest in working with food first blossomed.
“The instance that I really knew I wanted to get into food was when we were making homemade biscuits from scratch,” he said.
After taking hospitality and culinary management courses in college, Whitson realized he didn’t want to work as a chef. “You miss a lot of time with family, you miss those holidays, you miss those special moments,” he said.
Whitson said his advisor, who was also a chef and registered dietitian, suggested that he also take nutrition courses, which helped carve the path towards his master’s degree. His passion for the subject grew during his graduate dietetic internship, where he helped teach local communities about food and nutrition.
“I was tasked with working at an elementary school with a very low-income population and very few resources,” Whitson said. “I was teaching them about how to incorporate fruits and veggies into their everyday lives. When I was surveying and talking to these kids, some of them had never had a strawberry, never had a dragon fruit, never had a green bean.
“I really enjoy giving people experiences that they’ve never had, so we had a fruit and veggie tasting, where we washed the fruit together, and I had them rate it: ‘What did you like about it? What didn’t you like?’” he said. “It was great to give those kiddos the opportunity to try something different, which they wouldn’t have necessarily had in their everyday lives at home.”
Family and consumer sciences for today
Whitson said that when he explains the work of family and consumer sciences, he tries to emphasize the way the field has developed to help families improve quality of life in all aspects.
“We’re making a lot of different impacts in people’s lives,” he said. “We’re helping people do their tax documents, we’re helping them secure loans for their first houses, we’re creating future dietitians. We’ve grown and adapted from what this field has been before, and we do a lot more than people may expect.”
For Whitson, helping people develop healthy and meaningful relationships with food excites him the most.
“Food is significant for people,” he said. “As a registered dietitian-to-be, we get both sides of it: We see some of the difficult aspects of food, where people are scared of food or have eating disorders. But we also get the good parts, where food brings family and friends together.
“It nourishes you in all these different ways, not just your body,” Whitson said. “Trying to incorporate all of those different things, I think that’s what resonates most with me about food and nutrition.”
To learn more about the Cooperative Extension Service’s Family and Consumer Sciences department, visit uaex.uada.edu/life-skills-wellness/default.aspx.
To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on X and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on X at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on X at @AgInArk.
About the Division of Agriculture
The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s mission is to strengthen agriculture, communities, and families by connecting trusted research to the adoption of best practices. Through the Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative Extension Service, the Division of Agriculture conducts research and extension work within the nation’s historic land grant education system.
The Division of Agriculture is one of 20 entities within the University of Arkansas System. It has offices in all 75 counties in Arkansas and faculty on five system campuses.
The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture offers all its Extension and Research programs to all eligible persons without regard to race, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, age, disability, marital or veteran status, genetic information, or any other legally protected status, and is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.
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Media Contact:
Rebekah Hall
rkhall@uada.edu
@RKHall_
501-671-2061