Gretel Pelto, an internationally renowned nutrition and public health researcher, recently donated cookbooks to Syracuse University Libraries to add to the libraries’ already extensive cookbook collection. The libraries’ cookbook collection supports academic programs and courses in health, food studies, history, anthropology, geography, literature and more. The collection is used to explore social history and culture, international cuisines and diets, practice cooking and baking techniques, revise recipes for community food distribution or change nutritional values, understand people’s relationship to food and how it can be used to bring together and build community, as well as restore and celebrate our connection to the land.

Falk College Librarian Anita Kuiken selected titles from Gretel Pelto’s personal collection. Titles for this gift can be found in the library catalog by searching for “Gift of Gretel Pelto, 2022”. The cookbooks in this giveaway would normally be stored in the Carnegie Library, however, they are currently available on the fourth floor of the Bird Library. Additional titles from the donation will be available at Falk College. The generous donation also includes additional food study books that can be located throughout the collection.

Pelto is a graduate professor of nutritional sciences at Cornell University’s College of Human Ecology. She has also taught in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Connecticut. His work aims to bridge the interface between academic research and actions to improve nutrition and public health in communities, and to put the methods of the social sciences, in particular those of ethnography, at the service of research. on child nutrition and health. She has written and edited several books and numerous articles on theoretical and empirical issues in the academic nutrition community. Pelto has conducted field research in Mexico, Latin America and Finland. She received an honorary doctorate from the University of Helsinki in recognition of her work and contributions to the development of nutrition research and education. His experience led to an eight-year appointment at the World Health Organization as a senior social scientist responsible for creating research tools and implementing their application to improve infection management. acute respiratory and diarrheal diseases in developing countries. She received the Malinowski Prize from the Society for Applied Anthropology and is a Fellow of the American Society for Nutrition and the Society for Applied Anthropology. She was the founding editor of the journals Medical anthropology and Opinion in Anthropology and collaborated with colleagues to establish a group within the Society for Medical Anthropology, now an independent organization (The Society for Food and Nutrition) which operates under the aegis of the American Anthropological Association. She currently sits on the editorial board of several nutrition and health journals. Several books and articles written by Gretel Pelto can be found in the Syracuse University Libraries collection by searching Convene.

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Syracuse University Libraries provide expertise, information, and tools to students, faculty and staff, alumni, and the community. With more than 4.8 million resource volumes accessible through millions of physical and online visits each year, libraries provide information services, responsive collections, knowledgeable staff, and safe and accessible physical and digital spaces that encourage intellectual exploration. In doing so, libraries enable the creation of new knowledge, catalyze scientific collaboration and cultural exchange, and advance Syracuse University’s mission of teaching, learning, and research.