UConn’s team once again won the Food Distribution Research Society (FDRS) Student Food Marketing Challenge.
This year was the fourth time a UConn team competed, and the second time they have won this national competition. They won in 2023 and placed second in 2024.
The team included Jacob Timchak ’26 (CAHNR), Sofie Jepsen ’26 (CAHNR), and Nora Lombardo ’27 (CAHNR). Cristina Connolly, assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, was the faculty advisor. Timchak has been on the team for the past three years and served as the group leader in those cycles; Jepsen has been part of the team for the past two years; and Lombardo, for whom this was her first competition, will serve as the team leader next year.
“It felt very gratifying, knowing how much effort we put into it, and then getting that feedback that we won, that was very, very exciting,” Jepsen says.
Each year, teams from universities around the country are given a unique case study from a real stakeholder. The students then develop a plan to address the problem which is evaluated in two rounds by a panel of expert judges.
This year, the case study concerned the California Beet Growers Association. The only sugar processing plant in the state closed recently, with the federal allotments moving to Minnesota. This posed a real problem for beet growers because beets are heavy and hence difficult to transport to processors farther away, the largest of which are in Utah and Minnesota.
The UConn team got together to research U.S. sugar policy and potential solutions. This process involved interviewing the CEO of an ethanol company, lawyers, and a CAHNR alum who works on solar power integration in California.
“We were accessing all resources available to us and really doing everything we could,” Timchak says. “We took this problem very seriously because of the real-life stakes behind the case study.”
After considering several options, the team finally landed on a plan which involved California Ethanol and Power as its key feature. The company was already planning on working with sugarcane farmers and had a permit for a new ethanol plant. The team proposed building a “flex plant” that could process both sugarcane and sugar beets. This would be the first of its kind inspired by flex plants in Brazil that process corn and sugarcane.
“They were building a plant to turn sugarcane into ethanol, but then you would combine it so that it could use sugar beets as well,” Jepsen says. “Then you’re utilizing the plant more and they’re able to create more ethanol.”
Their plan also included recommendations for how the beet farmers could organize as a Co-Op, apply for grants, lease land with lower-quality soil to solar projects, as well as how to potentially restart sugar processing.
At the competition final, which took place in San Diego this year, the team presented their extensively researched plan to the judges.
“They spent a lot of hours, a lot of late nights, put a lot of work into it and it showed,” Connolly says. “The judges commented that they were very well-prepared.”
The team was notified of their win while walking together through Balboa Park.
“We very cinematically screamed, cheered, and then just jumped up and down,” Lombardo says.
Connolly says the success of this team is also a testament to the growing opportunities and community within the department, which offers students the choice of two in-demand majors and high earning potential post-graduation.
“I think it says something about the growth of the department and the way there’s more and more experiential learning opportunities for undergraduates,” Connolly says. “I’m hoping we really start to see synergy where students do work with professors, are in the ARE club, do this competition, have work study with our department, and that we really get students more involved in the department as a whole.”
In addition to the FDRS win, the team also took home second place in the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association’s 2025 Venture Building Challenge. The team, which also included Laura Coderre ’27 (CAHNR), competed virtually against 27 teams worldwide.
This work relates to CAHNR’s Strategic Vision area focused on Ensuring a Vibrant and Sustainable Agricultural Industry and Food Supply.
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