Spring Break
Student environmental group promotes local food
Michelle Firestone
Issue date: 2/24/09 Section: News
In keeping with the University of Connecticut's green efforts, a new student environmental group was formed last fall.
"Real Slow Food," a group formed by Meghan Misset, an 8th-semester nutritional sciences major, was created to raise awareness about sustainable agriculture and locally grown food.
"I've been seeing in my own interest and research that there is a real disconnect between students and their food," Misset said. "Many don't know where their food is coming from."
The group is a combination of two different groups: the "Real Food Challenge" and "Slow Food."
According to Rachel Pope, an 8th-semester dietetics major and the group's vice president, Misset put the two groups together because she liked both goals. The goal of "Real Food Challenge" is to get 20 percent of food in campus dining halls to be local, while the goal of "Slow Food" is to "know where food comes from," Pope said.
Misset was particularly inspired by the Local Routes program at Whitney Dining hall, where she works. Local Routes is a program through which UConn gets locally grown food served in its dining halls. Of all the dining halls, Whitney serves the highest percentage of the food.
Misset and five other members of the group attended the Northeast Summit at UMass-Amherst over the weekend, a summit designed to raise awareness of sustainable and locally grown food. According to Misset, the summit had two major goals: its indirect goal was to build enthusiasm, but the main goal was to educate about sustainability.
"It was more of a learning exchange," she said.
Misset and Zbigniew Grabowski, a graduate student who is a member of the Eco-Garden Club, led a seminar entitled, "From Idea to Action: Broad-Spectrum Student Activism and the Academic Institution," in which they discussed what they have done at UConn in terms of sustainability. Misset said that 30 to 35 people attended the seminar.
"It was very productive," she said.
"Real Slow Food," a group formed by Meghan Misset, an 8th-semester nutritional sciences major, was created to raise awareness about sustainable agriculture and locally grown food.
"I've been seeing in my own interest and research that there is a real disconnect between students and their food," Misset said. "Many don't know where their food is coming from."
The group is a combination of two different groups: the "Real Food Challenge" and "Slow Food."
According to Rachel Pope, an 8th-semester dietetics major and the group's vice president, Misset put the two groups together because she liked both goals. The goal of "Real Food Challenge" is to get 20 percent of food in campus dining halls to be local, while the goal of "Slow Food" is to "know where food comes from," Pope said.
Misset was particularly inspired by the Local Routes program at Whitney Dining hall, where she works. Local Routes is a program through which UConn gets locally grown food served in its dining halls. Of all the dining halls, Whitney serves the highest percentage of the food.
Misset and five other members of the group attended the Northeast Summit at UMass-Amherst over the weekend, a summit designed to raise awareness of sustainable and locally grown food. According to Misset, the summit had two major goals: its indirect goal was to build enthusiasm, but the main goal was to educate about sustainability.
"It was more of a learning exchange," she said.
Misset and Zbigniew Grabowski, a graduate student who is a member of the Eco-Garden Club, led a seminar entitled, "From Idea to Action: Broad-Spectrum Student Activism and the Academic Institution," in which they discussed what they have done at UConn in terms of sustainability. Misset said that 30 to 35 people attended the seminar.
"It was very productive," she said.
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sam
posted 2/24/09 @ 11:29 AM EST
rock on megh misset!
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