{"id":184669,"date":"2022-04-28T07:25:13","date_gmt":"2022-04-28T11:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=184669"},"modified":"2023-06-27T12:58:58","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T16:58:58","slug":"eat-local-raising-awareness-of-local-food-sourcing-in-uconn-dining-halls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2022\/04\/eat-local-raising-awareness-of-local-food-sourcing-in-uconn-dining-halls\/","title":{"rendered":"Eat Local: Raising Awareness of Local Food Sourcing in UConn Dining Halls"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matt Chen \u201822 (CAHNR, CLAS) is working with UConn Dining Services to heighten student awareness of UConn\u2019s local food purchasing.<\/p>\n

Chen, a double major in agricultural and resource economics (ARE) in the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources<\/a> and communications, began working with ARE professor Cristina Connolly and fellow CAHNR senior Hannah Colonies-Kelley on a project to increase the amount of food UConn purchased from local farmers.<\/p>\n

\"Countdown<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sounded like an incredible opportunity to impact local food procurement in Dining Services,\u201d Chen says.<\/p>\n

When Chen and Kelley began researching the issue, however, he soon discovered UConn Dining Services was already purchasing 36% of its food locally. Other large public universities such as UMass Amherst purchase only 20% of their food locally, on average.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that especially as such a large university, the example UConn can lead for sustainability is important,\u201d Chen says.<\/p>\n

This commitment to sourcing local produce not only impacts local farmers; it can provide more nutritious and diverse food options than items transported hundreds or thousands of miles.<\/p>\n

Through a grant awarded through the Environmental and Social Sustainability Small Grants Program<\/a> in the Office of Sustainability, Chen and Kelley \u201822 are continuing their work to highlight UConn\u2019s success in local food procurement.<\/p>\n

Chen is interviewing farmers and distributors to learn more about their relationship with UConn and any hardships they may face while supplying to UConn. The pair is also designing a survey for the UConn undergraduate student body to assess their awareness of UConn\u2019s commitment to locally sourced food. The survey will ask students about their school or college and their experience with food insecurity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a major factor in how students look at local food or sustainability,\u201d Chen says.<\/p>\n

The survey results will help Chen, Kelley, and UConn Dining Services to develop marketing strategies to increase student awareness of their local food purchasing.<\/p>\n

Chen says UConn\u2019s success in local procurement is likely a factor of the strong relationship the University has fostered with area farmers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think UConn has done a really good job at making a connection with food providers,\u201d Chen says. \u201cI think Dining Services, overall, is doing a great job at local food procurement that students aren\u2019t aware of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chen says the skills he has learned working on this project will serve him well after graduation. He is considering graduate school or working for an organization like the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP).<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m always looking at how systems can be changed,\u201d Chen says. \u201cI think doing research has given me knowledge and skills to take into any field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow <\/em>UConn CAHNR<\/em><\/a> on social media<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UConn senior Matt Chen is using his research experience to highlight UConn\u2019s success in local food procurement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":184935,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2297,2224,1715,2076,2387,2235,2225,2306,2234],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2140],"class_list":["post-184669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agricultural-resource-economics","category-cahnr","category-community-impact","category-research","category-sustainability","category-today-homepage","category-uconn-storrs","category-uconn-voices","category-university-life"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-30 01:57:40","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184669"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":185044,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184669\/revisions\/185044"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/184935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184669"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=184669"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=184669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}