trips explore outdoor activities in scenic locations

Tumbling Rock Cave features several unique rock formations like Topless Dome, Christmas Tree Stalagmite and Hall of the Gods. However, there is no lighting in the cave. The cave's staff members will give participants headlamps to use to navigate the cave’s interior.

Bills said prior experience is not necessary to cave at Tumbling Rock. However, the caving will involve lots of walking and maneuvering around rocks and obstacles the group may be encounter while caving.

talk, make those connections, make those friendships that that will kind of last beyond just the trip.”

OA’s first trip is Feb. 11 to the Sipsey Wilderness in northwest Alabama.

The trip involves a twoday, 12-mile hike through the woods of Alabama’s largest designated wilderness. Backpackers will also get to view a very large poplar tree called “The Big Tree”.

Bryce Addy, a senior mechanical engineering major on the OA staff, said he is looking forward to traversing the Sipsey.

Addy has been to the Sipsey with OA before. While the distance of the hike was challenging, he said the views made the trip rewarding.

On March 4 and 5, OA will travel to Monte Sano State Park and Tumbling

Rock Cave.

Bills said OA will leave the Sanderson Center the morning of March 4 and travel east of Huntsville, Alabama, to the Monte Sano State Park. The group will stay the night at the park, and then travel to Tumbling Rock Cave in the morning.

OA’s last trip of the semester will be to Sand Rock on April 22. Also known as Cherokee Rock Village, Sand Rock is located in the mountains of northern Alabama. The trip features a campout and the opportunity to climb Sand Rock.

“There is a disbelief that Starkville has a homeless population that we are trying to counteract,” said Carruth, a junior philosophy major.

Carruth explained that residents do not think the city has people experiencing homelessness since the issue is not widely known.

As Starkville Strong continues to address these issues, it has been making strides with funding and internal growth, Herrington said.

In August 2022, Herrington created committees that work towards particular needs of the community. She said the volunteers would continue to progress during the new year.

Carruth is a member of the Community Advocacy Committee, which seeks to raise awareness and educate the community about city issues.

“These committees have given a lot of people an avenue where they can show up and do the work,” Carruth said.

Beyond the expansion of these committees, Starkville Strong partnered with Five

Rumie

Phillips said scammers often use electronic money transferring apps like Venmo and PayPal to obtain money from customers without sending them the item they bought.

To avoid scammers, McCraney said students are required to sign up with their university email to access Rumie.

Since a university email is required, each user is bound by their school’s code of conduct.

“It's very easy to report any kind of misconduct that happens on the app, and that can

Suzanne Bowen, a registered dietician with the Department of Health Promotion and Wellness, will cofacilitate the group with Claire Griese. Bowen believed the philosophy of intuitive eating is powerful.

“I think people are worn out by all the diet culture messaging that’s around these days, so the intuitive eating philosophy can be very liberating,” Bowen said. “Once you remove those barriers, you have room to explore what your body needs.”

Bowen said the intuitive eating philosophy helped individuals with the guilt attached to taboo foods.

“It does not disregard nutrition, but gives you permission to drop the guilt over eating foods our culture has labeled as bad,”

Bills said OA will cater the climbing toward the experience level of the participants. Beginners will do less challenging levels, while more experienced climbers can do more difficult hikes.

OA recommends participants who are new to climbing visit the Sanderson Center climbing wall before attending the trip, Bills said.

Tanner Thurman, graduate assistant for Outdoor Adventures, said the pricing of the trips offered by OA is much lower than the prices for similar trips

Horizons Health Services, another nonprofit organization, to receive a second office space.

At the new location, Herrington said she hopes to have meetings with clients and add a second food pantry.

While the team continues to apply for more grants, Herrington said Starkville Strong has been officially accepted as a United Way Allocation Agency, which gives the non-profit federal funding to continue working towards its goals.

Even though it is growing, Starkville Strong continues to require community support, said the executive director.

“We always need funding, and we always need food donations,” get forwarded to upper management at the university. With your '.edu' email address, it's connected to your name, so there's full transparency,” McCraney said.

Herrington said.

Starkville Strong participants work alongside community members to show their potential and a hope for a more stable future.

Herrington said it seeks to provide real help for real problems instead of temporary solutions.

“We don’t do BandAids,” Herrington said.

The app is home to a standard marketplace where students can purchase tickets, textbooks, furniture, clothing and more.

“Let’s say you're an average student who's looking for some sunglasses and you see someone at Ole Miss has the sunglasses you want. You can get them to ship it to you,” McCraney said. Caki Field, senior majoring in management and entrepreneurship at Ole Miss, became involved with the app over the summer. Since then, Field has overseen the rental feature of the app.

“After COVID, we were going to all these social events, date parties, formals, and I was buying a new dress for every single one of them, which obviously, as a college student, is not cost effective,” Field said.

According to Field, the rental feature can help students cut down on outfit spending for events.

“Girls across campus can rent from each other, you know, dresses that have been worn once or not even once or lightly worn,” Field said.

McCraney said the rental feature also allows students to rent out their own creative services to others.

Field said the app was especially useful for items that only students would be interested in buying.

“Like, the other day, I sold a hardcover card for a bar here in Oxford. I mean, that's something specifically only college students would really buy,” Field said.

Before launching to universities across the nation, McCraney said the objective is to allow students in the SEC to become accustomed to the app first. disorder treatment,” Mason-Peeples said. Bowen also recommended contacting the Longest Student Health Center for help regarding nutrition and food habits.

“Our objective is to get, you know, a couple thousand students at every school across the SEC, and then once we can help thousands of students across there, then we can expand across the actual country,” McCraney said.

Currently, McCraney said around 1,000 students at Mississippi State University have started using the app. Rumie is currently available in the App Store and the Google Play Store. For more information, visit rumieapp.com.

“I offer free nutrition counseling for MSU students,” Bowen said. “If you have any nutrition-related concern, you can call the Longest Student Health Center scheduling desk and set up an appointment. ” The Longest Student Health Center can be reached at 662-3252431 while the Student Counseling Center can be reached at 662-3252091.

Bowen said.

According to Bowen, research has shown the health benefits of intuitive eating, such as lower triglycerides, offered by other schools in the region.

“I kind of compare us to (the University of) Alabama, UAB (University of AlabamaBirmingham) and Ole Miss,” Thurman said.

“We offer the lowest price possible to allow people to be able to go by having as low set of a price as we do. Ours is usually between $60 and $80 for a student.

Alabama’s is like $200.” lower body mass index and higher HDL. Food Freedom is just one resource available to help students with food and nutrition.

Those interested in going on an adventure trip can sign up on the UREC website. OA will provide transportation for up to eight participants.

Kimberly MasonPeeples, assistant director of Student Counseling Services, said other alternatives were available through SCS.

“The Student Counseling Center offers counseling services included in students’ tuition that are inclusive of eating

Students interested in joining Food Freedom can join the email list at www.qrco.de/foodfreed omspr23.