By Kassidy Tsikitas | Staff Writer
When Frisco junior Supriya Kotnani made the 1,400-mile journey from her high school in Irvine, Calif., to Baylor, HeartBeet for Healthy wasn’t too far behind.
HeartBeet for Healthy is a nonprofit that helps lower-class families prioritize their nutrition and health. In the fall of 2022, a chapter of the organization was chartered at Baylor.
Kotnani founded the nonprofit while she was a Girl Scout at Beckman High School. Aiming to break the stigma of food insecurity, her efforts earned her a Gold Award — the most prestigious award in Girl Scouting given to those who help “fix a problem in their community or make a lasting change in their world.”
“When I was working in a doctor’s clinic, I saw how people were coming in because they didn’t have access or didn’t know how to make nutritious food,” Kotnani said. “Nutrition is the basis of our very being.”
Kotnani said it can be challenging to keep up with well-balanced habits, which is something HeartBeet for Healthy tries to address.
“The issue is that there are no healthy places,” Kotnani said. “No one will go through a drive-thru and get the healthiest options, including myself sometimes. To help mitigate [this], we provide recipes for these people to do at home, including ones with ingredients that you might already have.”
Since their chartering, HeartBeet for Healthy members have participated in the Jubilee Food Market Health Fair and partnered with Mission Waco to host free nutrition seminars that are funded by outside fundraising efforts. At the seminars, members teach attendees recipes step-by-step while discussing the benefits of proper nutrition.
Grapevine junior Varshini Krishnan, who serves as treasurer for Baylor’s chapter, said she joined for a reason similar to Kotnani’s.
“I shadowed a nephrologist [kidney doctor], and one thing I noticed was the solutions given to the patients were nutrition-based,” Krishnan said. “In addition to medications, nutrition helps a lot, but isn’t focused on enough.”
Kotnani and Krishnan both said healthy eating is a hard habit to establish, but forcing it isn’t necessary.
“There’s a lot of misconceptions about nutrition like, ‘Oh, you have to only eat salads or certain foods,'” Kotnani said. “We promote a balanced diet. We say, ‘You can eat healthy but also have fries sometimes.’”
In April, the club is planning to partner with the Medical Ethics Discussion Society at Baylor to discuss the ethics of nutrition. This will focus on self-care and ways to stay on track with good habits.
After she graduates, Kotnani said she plans to expand HeartBeet for Healthy worldwide, spreading the message that anyone can be healthy, no matter their class.
