The University of California announced today (Dec. 9) that 54 UC students have been awarded UC Global Food Initiative fellowships, funding projects that will address issues ranging from community gardens and food pantries to urban agriculture and food waste.
All 10 UC campuses plus UC Agriculture and Natural Resources and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are participating in the UC President’s Global Food Initiative Student Fellowship Program. The $2,500 fellowships to undergraduate and graduate students, selected by the campuses, will fund student-generated research, related projects or internships that focus on food issues. Also, plans are being developed for student fellows to convene in spring 2015.
“I want to congratulate the inaugural class of Global Food Initiative student fellows,” UC President Janet Napolitano said. “These are outstanding students who are passionate about this important global topic and will be able to make valuable contributions to this initiative through these fellowships. I’m looking forward to seeing the results of their projects.”
Napolitano, together with UC's 10 chancellors, launched the Global Food Initiative in July in an effort to help put UC's campuses, the state and the world on a pathway to sustainably and nutritiously feed themselves. The fellowships will support the work of the initiative’s early action teams and the initiative’s overall efforts to address food security, health and sustainability.
Fellowship projects will examine urban agriculture, sustainable campus landscapes, agricultural waste streams and biological pest control, among other topics. Some projects will enhance experiential learning, such as constructing new vegetable gardens. Others will support food pantries. Yet other projects will document research through films and social media.
The bulk of the fellowship funding comes from the UC President’s Initiative Fund, with several campuses augmenting the funding to support additional student fellowships. At UCLA, funding for the student fellowship program was supplemented by a matched donation from Jane and Terry Semel.
In addition to the initial 54 student fellowships, further fellowships will be supported at UC Davis by a private donation from Craig McNamara, president and owner of walnut-producing Sierra Orchards, and his wife, Julie; and at UC Berkeley by donations from Joy Sterling, CEO of Iron Horse Vineyards, and Chez Panisse owner Alice Waters and the Edible Schoolyard Project. UC continues to reach out to the community for financial support of the fellowship program.
The initial student fellows and their projects include:
UC Berkeley
- Kate Kaplan, experiential learning
- Miranda Everitt, leveraging research for policy change
- Vanessa Taylor, food pantries and food security
UC Davis
- Ryan Dowdy, food system sustainability: converting food waste into electricity
- Sophie Sapp Moore, food security for the Papaye Peasant Movement in Haiti
- Jessica West, pest management of the spotted wing drosophila
UC Irvine
- Victoria Lowerson Bredow, inclusive food systems: immigrants, indigeneity and innovation
- Alexander Fung, food pantry initiative
- Sally Geislar, local food access and advocacy: cultivating town and gown synergies
- Crystal Hickerson, grow your own food campaign
- Ankita Raturi, modeling the environmental impact of agricultural systems
UCLA
- Sheela Bhongir, Kayee Liu, Vanessa Moreno and Robert Penna, "A Recipe for Change": a short documentary film about the effects of food marketing in early childhood obesity
- Sanna Alas, Phoebe Lai and Claudia Varney, "Down to Earth: Stories of Urban Gardeners in Los Angeles," an ethnographic documentary film about Los Angeles County residents who grow food in community gardens
- Hayley Ashbaugh, Lucie Dzongang, Adrienne Greer, Logan Hitchcock and Lindsey Jagoe, evaluation of impact and sustainability of farmer hubs selling to large institutions
- Ian Davies, Kaylie Edgar, Steven Eggert and Ashley Lopez, curricula/food literacy garden project — constructing two new vegetable gardens
UC Merced
- Hoaithi Dang, hydroponic farming
- Erendira Estrada, evaluating the effects of a mobile grocery in addressing the lack of access to fresh foods in rural communities
- Rebecca Quinte, sustainable agriculture in Central Valley food crops
- Megan Schill, prions and food safety
- Emily Wilson, endophytes and sustainable agriculture
- Andrew Zumkehr, farmland mapping project
UC Riverside
- Dietlinde Heilmayr, community gardens
- Darrin Lin, California Agriculture and Food Enterprise website development
- Daniel Lopez, on-campus food pantry
UC San Diego
- Jancy Benavides, urban agriculture on brownfields
- Hayden Galante, sustainable campus landscapes
- Jane Kang, improving food and water security through urban ecology and participatory design
- Danielle Ramirez, urban agriculture and civic engagement
UC San Francisco
- Jacob Benjamin Mirsky, exploring patient perspectives on food insecurity to optimize the San Francisco General Hospital Therapeutic Food Pantry
- Jonathan Schor, reinterpreting nutritional facts: a tool to inform consumer choices in the short term and food policy in the long term
UC Santa Barbara
- Kathryn Parkinson and Emilie Wood, post-consumer food waste reduction
- Rachel Rouse, food security and accessibility
UC Santa Cruz
- Alyssa Billys, experiential learning and agroecological production
- Joanna Ory, food equity and California Higher Education Food Summit engagement support
- Crystal Owings, California Higher Education Food Summit planning support and planning to establish the Swipes program at UC Santa Cruz
Agriculture and Natural Resources
- Jacqueline Chang, UC Berkeley, hunger survey of UC students
- Kevi Mace-Hill, UC Berkeley, graduate student preparedness for Cooperative Extension
- Samantha Smith, UC Davis, scientist interviews
Berkeley Lab
- Kripa Akila Jagannathan, UC Berkeley, alignment of climate model outputs to farmers’ information needs
- Michelle Stitzer, UC Davis, genomic annotations of maize
- Gus Tolley, UC Davis, effects of prolonged drought on hydrologic conditions