Posts Tagged: Global Food Initiative

Sourcing sustainable food for students is a success

The UC system's goal to purchase 20 percent of its food from sustainable sources by 2020, one of the efforts connected to the UC Global Food Initiative, has already been achieved four years early, reported Scott Thill on Civil Eats.

The residence dining halls purchased 22 percent of their food from sustainable sources and five UC medical centers have reached 20 percent.

"I think our challenge going forward is realizing that 20 percent is considered a minimum-level threshold," said Tim Garlarneau, co-chair of the UC Sustainable Food Service Working Group and co-chair of the UC Global Food Initiative's Food Access and Security Subcommittee.

One way the article suggested to make more progress in sustainable food procurement is to purchase popular foods – like coffee – from growers in California, where the bean isn't typically grown. UC Cooperative Extension advisor Mark Gaskell said that he expects to see more coffee plantings and increased overall coffee acreage in central and southern California.

“This will always be a niche crop on small farms in California destined for high-value niche markets, but fortunately we have clearly demonstrated that very high-quality coffee can be produced in California,” he said.

Garlarneau notes that crops like coffee and bananas are better grown and sourced fairly from abroad while UC focuses on local sources for California-grown foods.

Systemwide coordination for purchasing higher costing food products (such as meats) that can meet campus and medical center specifications and demonstrate increased sustainability will require going out to bid to larger entities to meet the demand. As an example, Garlarneau shared UC's Sea to Table commitment to support small-scale fisherfolk to complement larger company offerings of sustainable tunafish and other seafood.

UC commits $3.3 million to improve student access to nutritious food

Guided by the findings of a survey conducted by UC ANR's Nutrition Policy Institute, UC President Janet Napolitano announced July 11 she would commit $3.3 million in new funding over the next two years to help UC students regularly access nutritious food. UC's survey findings and response were reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, East Bay Times, Los Angeles Times, KCBS and KPCC.

The online survey was administered to a randomly selected sample of students from all 10 UC campuses in spring 2015. It is part of the UC Global Food Initiative, which promotes a nutritious, sustainable food supply.

According to the NPI survey, 19 percent of the nearly 9,000 participating UC students indicated they had “very low” food security, which the USDA defines as experiencing reduced food intake at times due to limited resources. An additional 23 percent were characterized as having “low” food security, defined by the USDA as reduced quality, variety or desirability of diet, with little or no indication of reduced food intake.

“I wasn't expecting that level of food insecurity in students,” said NPI director Lorrene Ritchie, who led the study, to Jessie Qian of the Daily Californian. “Adults who aren't informed would think students are just passive, spending their money on other things or just complaining … but it's really that big of a problem.”

According to the UC news release, UC has developed an action plan tailored to the needs of individual campuses while maximizing coordination among them. The plan includes:

• Expanding food pantry storage and access
• Increasing collaboration with state and county offices to register students for CalFresh, California's nutrition assistance program
• Establishing and expanding awareness campaigns on student support services and food access
• Expanding the existing Swipe Out Hunger programs, which allow university students to donate excess dollars on their meal plan to reduce hunger on campuses
• Integrating food preparation and secure storage space into new student housing design and construction
• Enhancing financial aid communications about housing and food costs

“Among students who reported food insecurity in the past year, we found that for 57 percent this was a new experience – not one they had faced as children,” says Ritchie. “This suggests that students who are on their own for the first time would benefit from financial literacy training and additional information about financial aid, nutrition assistance, and making healthy choices on a limited budget.”

The report Student Food Access and Security Study, authored by NPI research analyst Suzanna Martinez, UC Santa Barbara sustainability coordinator Katie Maynard and Ritchie, can be downloaded at http://npi.ucanr.edu.

Everyone Wins! (Except the Spotted-Wing Drosophila)

It's great to see Jessica West, a member of  Joanna Chiu's molecular genetics lab in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology and a...

UC Davis undergraduate student Jessica West, who is majoring in biochemistry and molecular biology, has just received the UC Davis undergraduate award President's Global Food Initiative Student Fellowship Program. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

UC Davis undergraduate student Jessica West, who is majoring in biochemistry and molecular biology, has just received the UC Davis undergraduate award President's Global Food Initiative Student Fellowship Program. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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