Over the next hour, you're going to learn about Auburn University's Food U program, and the impact it is having on students all across campus.

The various partnerships and collaborations that make it possible.

Enjoy.

Well, Food U is a multidisciplinary, collaborative program that seeks to immerse students in the food system here at Auburn University.

We have several venues where we produce food, and that food ends up on plates all across campus and in partner restaurants.

We also leverage, resources that we have teaching, instruction and, research and extension resources, all for the food you program.

So Food U started as, the idea that how do we bring something unique and special into our dining halls.

That was my the original idea when I, when I, when I started talking to folks in the College of Agriculture, which is our first partner, is how do we bring something that's unique to Auburn into our dining halls that we can give students an experience they can't have somewhere else?

And that's really at its core.

What we're hoping to create is a unique experience for our students, and it's grown out of that idea to become, you know, more of, you know, all of this different thought that comes with it.

But really at its core, it's how are we doing something that uniquely Auburn here?

And so, you know, we have all of these disciplines that touch food at Auburn.

And this is that connective tissue that, you know, whether it's food insecurity, which, you know, obviously every campus is affected by that, you know, wanting to do local sourcing.

How are we supporting our local farms and farmers?

How are we elevating our students experience?

How are we giving them experiences that are going to be valuable for them when they go out into the workplace?

All of those things are kind of encompassed within Food U.

The idea is that we can use the campus as a living laboratory to really create the best possible experience for our students.

Food U has been designed to give both horticulture students and students No matter what department or college, they're in opportunity to gain access to real world private industry experience in growing produce on site.

That is then going to be distributed and use on site as well.

So it's a full circle food program right?

From seed to compost.

and all along the way see what a full circle food production model looks like.

It's a very intimate involvement on the employee side of how to grow food and how to distribute it, and how it's used, and then how we take care of the waste as well.

So we have students that are employed as student workers in the Food U program.

We have team leaders.

They learn leadership skills.

All the students get to cross train, so they get to see the entire system, from, you know, when you say, garden to fork, if you will, but also, we think that it has impact outside of just the students that are in the program.

So there's there are classes that get to integrate into Food U and then as well, the entire student population gets to enjoy that fresh produce, served on campus each and every day.

So I, I started in horticulture, in about a year and a half in, I moved to agricultural economics.

The reason I got into horticulture was because I needed a job.

I was paying for tuition while I was here at Auburn making ends meet, and I started working in the greenhouse underneath Dr. Daniel Wells.

So my experience here, you know, outside of my education, although my education was important, my hands on experience here in the greenhouse, helping with research as an RA immediately applied to the first job that I got out of college, which was consulting in sort of a greenhouse.

So even even back when I was here, we're seeing that people that aren't specific to horticulture can get hands on experience and go into the field, and that's exactly what I experienced While I was at Auburn So the most compelling part of my job right now in relation to Food U would be offering students real hands on work.

Obviously the classroom is an important place for a student, right?

First and foremost, they're here to study inside of a classroom, So it's incredibly rewarding for me to give them an opportunity to get hands on experience that then applies directly to private industry.

University's job is to prepare students for private industry.

If they're just going through the steps here in a classroom setting and they're graduating and they're not ready then were failing them this program and my opportunity to work for the program gives me a chance to get in front of students prior to them graduating and get them really ready for a career outside of Auburn which is really, really exciting.

One of the things I always tell people is I've got 22 or so employees right now, only five of them are horticulture students.

These projects are so visible that attracts people from all different colleges and departments.

Right.

So I've got civil engineering and I've got biosystems engineering and I have psychology and English and mathematics.

Right.

So all this different stuff, people that have just been to the rooftop then ask for a job, I'm not expecting to pull people from different departments to then become horticulture students, but what I am expecting is for them to find passion in what they're doing in their work.

It's exciting as well.

It's cool experience and I've got people that arent horticulture majors graduate with a different degree and then go into the ag and hort field.

That is a win for us.

I don't I know other industries need their employees too, but our industry needs as much labor as possible right now.

And and really high level, employees as well.

here?

I'm Majoring in biosystems engineering, which is a Auburn's agricultural engineering kind of focuses on agriculture and other life sciences.

my college experience doesn't really exist without the mention of Food U in it.

I've kind of I've been working at this for two years.

By the time I graduate, I've been a part of Food U for a majority of my college experience.

And so it's been it's been, it's been great.

It's it gives a it's so it's really flexible.

So I have the option whenever I'm, whenever I'm not in class, I'm usually at work.

So whenever I'm not at work I'm usually in class.

And, and that pretty much goes on until the end of the day where everybody goes home.

And that's, that's allowed me to keep working at that, that persistent, persistent doing and creating is what has allowed me to, like, learn as much as I have about this horticulture program because I'm not a horticulture student.

So really, I've learned to the majority of my horticulture knowledge through this work experience.

And that's, that's one of those things that's been afforded to me.

So after graduation, I would like to work in the, culinary horticulture world.

So this, this job up on this rooftop is afforded me a really niche, opportunity to work with culinary staff rather than just deliver them produce.

So we get to work with them on what they want, on what they want us to grow and when they want it to grow, which, provides a lot of unique challenges in scheduling.

There's half of the battle in this world is long term planning with the seasons.

And, so we get to work with them to find out what they want and how we can grow it, when we can grow it, and what it's going to take to grow it.

If it's out of season.

So then.

So sometimes they'll request some plants that, aren't available on this rooftop.

We'll have to grow them in a greenhouse or in a controlled environment.

So that those that presents a lot of unique opportunities within the hospitality world, I'd love to bring bring my, horticultural background into working with hospitality, and just getting, getting culinary get getting chefs and culinary staff what they want.

So for Food U Ive been a student employee for two years.

I've been managing this rooftop garden for one year.

And that kind of involves just handling the day to day operations up here, handling the people flow.

So I handle our, our student workers.

I coordinate with them day in and day out and get them where, where we need them for every day.

Aside from that, I kind of just determine what needs to be done day in, day out and, help coordinate with what needs to be done for the top down.

So we've got 15 student workers that we rotate, day in and day out.

Throughout the week, we probably have five student workers, in every shift.

We work mornings and afternoons up here.

in this ever changing climate that we live in, I think that this rooftop garden really presents a, an opportunity to learn about how to grow plants in, extreme and in different climates.

So up here, what we find that it's hotter up here when it's when it's hot outside, it's a lot hotter up on this rooftop.

When it's cold outside, it's a lot colder on the rooftop.

And when it's windy outside, it's very windy up here.

So we get these extreme climates, which is, what we what I find that the global climate is shifting towards getting, going, going to extremes.

And, so we're learning how to manage those extremes up here while also, also providing research and, knowledge on green infrastructure like this rooftop garden itself.

I first got interested in vertical farming in a class with one of my professors taking a hydroponics class, and he introduced me to this farm out here and I started working for Food Food U on the rooftop and then slowly found myself working here.

So Food U The best way to describe it is it's kind of a collection of different food producing sites on campus that are all student run.

And so we take all the produce at those sites and we'll give it to campus dining or the Rane Center.

We are currently in our new vertical farm, in a few months, hopefully we'll have this entire thing filled out with lettuce and it can currently hold 3600 heads of lettuce.

So in our original freights we have vertical vertical farming.

But in here we'll have horizontal vertical farming.

And so in here where we're able to separate our plants from the water, which allows us to grow bigger heads without mold or other humidity issues creeping up on the underneath of our plant.

So in here we can produce almost 1,000 pounds of lettuce a week.

I think especially these vertical farms serve as a really good example of how we can give, like hyper local, extremely fresh produce to some areas that don't have access.

So these are a perfect cut and paste system that we could implement in different areas.

So I do I plan on staying with Food, U and being the head grower.

So I'd also help manage the greenhouse as well as our six container farms here.

And I would love to see the transformation gardens grow and be a part of that.

That is something I've ever since I came into horticulture four years ago.

I've heard them talk about, and it's kind of been whispers, and it's slowly taking traction and just being a part of it, as is now as I'm in these farms, is it's just an amazing feeling.

So I'd hope that more development would be able to come in to the transformation Gardens, investing in Food U I think we're investing in our students and it's valuable experience.

I think education has two sides to it.

And I think we do an excellent job in the classroom.

And I think Food U serves as an example of what we could be doing for education in the field.

I think this does a great job bridging the gap between our students and the workforce, and it's an excellent job to prepare students for what they might see in the future.

Food U is, seven or so years old, but just recently have we had an opportunity to really dive in the culinary side.

Thank you.

Even before it was named Food, U was always horticulture partnering with campus dining.

As of three or so years ago, especially with the Rane Culinary Science Center coming on board, we had the opportunity to kinda redevelop the way Food U works.

We're still heavily involved in campus dining, actually, more so than we were before.

But now that we have culinary sciences, we're now growing a different way.

Culinary Sciences isn't looking for size they're looking for produce quality and mouthfeel and, texture and color, you know, so it's a whole different type of produce that gives us the opportunity to show our employees two different growing styles So my job is to work with campus dining chefs the same exact way I'm working with culinary science and chefs.

Two different products, but the same exact consultation and figuring out what's on their menu, what we can change and what we viably can grow for them and consistently get to them Well, I'm the director of culinary here at the Horst Schulze School of Hospitality Management So I teach classes, I design and work with the curriculum.

I have the administrative responsibilities.

And then I also conduct research here as well in the in the realm of food.

there's an awful lot of work that goes into it.

First of all, I've got wonderful colleagues and, you know, faculty members here.

So getting support From them getting their expertise, but really its all about speaking to these stakeholders, speaking to the industry.

So, you know, we have the industry, we drive our curriculum.

So we have phenomenal people on our advisory board we have phenomenal relationships with different people across the industry.

So we're speaking to them.

We're we're consulting them.

We're helping.

They're helping us to drive curriculum development.

So that's that's at the front end too.

And so making sure that this curriculum is relevant, it's innovative, it's creative, but it provides the industry with future leaders who are able to deal with the challenges and the opportunities and the innovators in the industry.

So there's an awful lot of work for that.

And then collaborating with stakeholders across the food supply chain, making sure that we identify opportunities for, you know, elevated education and experiences for our students.

You know, it just takes a lot of collaboration, a lot of a lot of effort, a lot of people donating their time, a lot of people donating their product to us, too.

So we're just very grateful for that.

And I think it really, you know, the students benefit at the end of it based on that So I'm a current culinary science senior here at Auburn, and I'm going to go do my internship this summer and then graduate.

And then I'm starting grad school here to do their their hospitality program.

And I'm hoping to save for my PhD in global gastronomy.

I just really want to continue to further my knowledge in not only culinary, but sustainability That's what I want to write my thesis about is sustainable practices or, different agricultural components.

We can, add more to the Culinary Science Center to increase sustainability.

That's what I want to study for my masters.

But eventually I want to teach in a culinary institute or own my own restaurant.

I've always really had a passion for culinary arts.

I used to make fake bakeries with my mom in the kitchen when I was little.

But as I've gotten older, I've really become enthralled with the processes of everything and the science behind everything.

And Auburn just really offers a program that a lot of other programs don't offer.

And I feel like, like I've said before, this immersive experience where I'm getting to kind of touch all the different parts of the process has been a privilege.

our students are super, super bright and super, super enthusiastic.

They they come on board and you can see that they have an already an innate passion for and drive and motivation to learn about food.

You know I come from you know from their background from when they growing up or whatnot.

You know, and when they come to the Horst Schulze School of Hospitality Management on the culinary program and also the hospitality management program as a, as a, as a whole, they're learning about the food lifecycle, not just about preparing food.

So traditionally, you know, you would learn just about preparing and serving food and cooking the food, serving the food.

But we learn about the entire we teach them about the entire food lifecycles.

So also we incorporate growing food, procurement of food preparation, cooking, serving.

And then probably one of the most important parts is the disposal of food.

So you know, so they they're they're learning about all that.

And that's, that's in there that's woven into the curriculum throughout various different laboratory classes and lecture classes And you know, and it's it's introduced, it's reinforced.

It's emphasized.

We have our learning our learning objectives our student learning outcomes.

They they are really built on that foundation of this entire food life cycle.

so we engage with different stakeholders across the lifecycle.

So for instance we have growers come in.

We have like a local producer here about 15 miles away hes got mushrooms, Nourish Farms Robert Griffit, he's a graduate of the university.

He comes in last week.

He does a lecture on on mushroom growing and what not he provides He donates products so students are utilizing each week this phenomenal product We have a rooftop garden here managed by the horticulture Department.

We have guest speakers from the horticulture department come in.

So our students are learning about the growing of food So they have guest speakers.

they have product locally.

They they take field trips.

So so that's on the on the on the front end.

They're learning about how food is produced.

And then then obviously we do culinary classes and whatnot.

And they're learning of the preparation and the service of food.

We have industry people come in and contribute to that.

And then also then on the food disposal side.

So we have a few different initiatives.

So first of all, the food waste, we try to mitigate food waste as I talk.

So we have a massive issue.

Even though 40% of food, 30 to 40 pounds of food is wasted across the supply chain, that in them and in the restaurant industry too.

So our students are learning hands on in every single lab and how we can mitigate that.

So, for instance, our inedible food waste is collected in bowls on our counters.

Then at the end of the week, waste management is taking about 20 to 30 gallons of food waste, and it's ending up in the horticulture teaching gardens.

where they're composting and it's turned into nutritious soil, which is then used to produce food that then we use in class so that kind of closed loop.

And then as I talked about the initiative with campus with the Campus Kitchens project.

So anything that's edible then is collected and 2 or 3 times a week is then taken and repurposed and given to people who actually need food So the students are acutually learning about the entire food lifecycle, not just from a lecture standpoint, but also hands on in the lab like I said we have field trips over in the horticultural gardens where students are touching food, touching soil, seeing compost, are in this state of the art, and vertical gardens these container farms, so that learning about like state of the art, relevant technology in horticulture in addition to the culinary arts.

So just here in this building.

This is called the edge.

The students named it that.

It's right on the edge of the green space.

And, so the edge serves about between 4500 and 5000 students a day.

So it's a great opportunity to interact with students in a variety of ways.

my part is, I've always said I'm the beneficiary.

Right.

I think that I love the idea that we're getting the freshest possible produce We're getting to connect to the Auburn brand in a new way we can connect different parts of the university to.

I mean, everybody eats at the end of the day food is this continuity between lots of different disciplines here on campus.

And so is that connection right between, you know, just the idea of the Maslow's hierarchy.

I have to eat every day.

So I show up and I go eat.

But maybe having some thought behind that, right.

Where does my food come from?

How is it produced?

What happens to it when Im done here.

Right.

So, could you release that thought of, you know, having a perfect circle of.

We produce it here, we serve it right here in the edge.

And then when we have, you know, food that's remaining that can still be served, we donate that to campus kitchens.

And the food waste is able to be composted and brought out, to our partnership with Poultry sciences.

And so we've got this great circle and then that compost comes back and we throw more food with it.

So that's the idea behind Food U, at its core, is that this idea of having a, a real life cycle for food and by prizing it as a resource.

we want to grow it here.

We want to serve it as quickly as we can.

So I mean, the spring mix that we serve here on the salad bar is harvested the same day.

So the students are having an experience that unless you live in Yuma, Arizona, you're not going to have you can't just walk out and pull ahead of lettuce out of your garden.

It doesn't grow very well in Alabama.

So that alone, tomatoes that are vine ripened I mean, one of the things that students a lot of my own kids don't really like tomatoes.

And I think part of that is because they haven't really left on the vine, fully mature.

And we can give students experience And so those types of things cucumbers, bell peppers, lots of different things that maybe they haven't experienced at that peak freshness that we can give.

Again, because that's really the only thing that we're trying to we want our students that are growing it to have a great experience, but we're really doing it so that all of our students can have this amazing experience, having the freshest possible produce technology is ever changing.

I always joke with people that that agriculture, with its rich history, especially in the state, changes on a daily basis.

And it's becoming significantly more attractive for students to, to work.

People do want to work in the freight farms that are just across the walking path It's temperature controlled and humidity controlled, right?

It's the same temp year round.

It's it's easier to work inside.

It's higher tech rights so its more technical.

That's more attractive.

I think what we have to do is we have to work alongside the state and the southeast and eastern side of the US to make sure that the jobs that we're creating and the production styles that we're moving towards are attractive to the employees that we are graduating from all Auburn It's as important for us to push technology forward as it is for us to challenge and push our employees forward as well.

And you have both of those things happen at once.

I think you have an industry that grows really, really quickly.

So Food U has grown, as I said and some of that has been through robotics.

So we wanted to connect to the College of Engineering.

We now have a pizza bot that's in the in a station upstairs.

The pizza bot is a really cool piece of equipment.

I think that when people hear robotics, they think, how are you eliminating jobs?

And it's really not about that.

We call it co robotics because it's working with the people in the station to make them more efficient at what they're doing.

One of the most interesting things, I had a conversation with some industrial engineers, and they were less interested in the robot and more interested in the cheese savings, because that cheese savings actually led to us being able to put six extra pepperonis on the pizza, and for the for the visual of walking up and seeing that pizza for the first time and having more pepperoni that feels like, hey, I'm getting a better deal here, right?

I mean, any one of us, thats ever eaten a pizza.

You feel like there's exactly three pepperonis per slice only, you know, really kind of get that feeling.

But this allows us to find that savings and cheese is the most expensive thing on pizza.

You could also ruin a pizza with too much cheese and not enough cheese, too much sauce.

And so this robot allows us to do a very efficient way of making 90% of our pizzas and It's great for the folks that work in the station.

We didnt eliminate any jobs It just has made everything more efficient.

We also have one that's doing a it's a fry bot So what is the worst job if you're in the back of the house, it's frying, right?

You get grease splatter and you get all these things they can get on you.

The robot, does that mean it moves the baskets, picks up the food, drops it back down the oil, and then dumps the dumps the fries, dumps the chicken fingers, whatever you're cooking.

And that again, it raises you know, it raises our ability to put more food into boxes to serve students.

Didn't eliminating jobs.

And it's made the whole process more efficient.

If you're not having to watch the fryer.

that means you can be doing all the other things.

That need to get done.

I think the most sustainable part of Food U is the fact that we're zero waste.

And the blessing in disguise is that we always have an outlet for our produce That's not always realistic, but it is for us on the campus side.

So no matter how much we grow, we've got partners in multiple different areas where we are able to distribute our produce.

What we like to see on the private industry side is how large scale producers that are growing lots of produce have multiple outlets as well.

Sometimes you get in a situation where we've grown too much or more than what you thought, which is a great problem to have.

But if you don't have an outlet for that produce, then it's a waste.

We're blessed here that no matter what happens, campus dining can take all the extra produce we had.

We encourage private industry to move in to a similar rhythm that we're trying to, you know, produce here.

All right.

So the campus kitchen, has kind of two main goals to reduce food waste and reduce food insecurity, in the Auburn/Opelika area so youve got multiple different dining halls and restaurants on campus.

and so anywhere where theres food served so where students can formally go eat a meal, sit down and also events on campus.

So you've got these large student organizations that have events, catering, that kind of thing.

If there's food, we're going to be there collecting the leftovers.

We have contacts just about everywhere on campus.

And we're able to collect that food, bring it back here to Luptin, our home base, and package it up into individual meals that contain, well-balanced, you know, variety of foods.

We have carbohydrate, protein and vegetable, every meal that we deliver to people.

And then from there, we have these individual meals that we deliver out into the Auburn/Opelika community, as well as serve, certain populations of students here on campus as well.

The Campus Kitchen is a student run, student led organization on campus, as well as a nonprofit to kind of serve both roles in that.

We are student organization.

We have, students from across campus coming and volunteering with us, leading our student as well as, on the our eight member executive team, kind of managing, like I said, the behind the scenes, aspects, side of things.

From the nonprofit side, we are, very blessed to have that specific designation.

It allows us to, kind of reach out in the community a little bit more, really develop some of those connections, as well as help us out with some of the financial and grant side of things.

In the organization We have a leadership team of 118 people total.

Eight of those 118 are on the executive team, and then 110 are chef leaders who come in at the same time every week to run a specific shift So that's one of our pickups, one of our packaging and one of our deliveries out in the community.

It would not be possible without our leadership team or shift leaders who run the shifts themselves and really go, kind of out in the community on campus to do to do what we do.

I have volunteered with campus kitchens, and I think it's really special seeing the food being taken from the labs and also getting to work with them and see the food that comes from the labs in different parts on campus.

I think it's a really important program to support because 1 in 3 students at Auburn, they face food insecurity.

And I think a lot of students really don't want to access these programs just because they're scared to reach out or are scared to access these resources.

So I think really lifting it up and making food insecurity not a stigma, which is what campus kitchens is doing, is one of the main reasons I encourage people around Auburn and around the country to lift up this program.

Yeah.

So the the campus kitchens project is really, really super important to what we do here.

And, you know, it really gives those students that, opportunity to learn about how they themselves can contribute to society.

But from it, from a culinary standpoint to also, how can we maybe take what we produce in class and elevate that a little bit more?

So not only are the people from people who need food, who are food insecure, are being provided with food, but also to find the food that is tasty and enjoyable for them.

So they also deserve that too.

So, so for our students to be able to have that opportunity to do that, it's fantastic for our students to put into practice their food safety and sanitation practices.

You know, so it is important to to make sure that food is safe, stored safe, served safe, you know, so that's that's critical for our students to, to, to to get that experience.

So it's really the first time to experience inside a laboratory to serve food to to people from all, all around the county, all around the state, you know.

students get to go to appreciation of, and the need, you know, the food insecurity need in in Alabama and in the country, in the entire world, you know, and factoring in the amount of food that's wasted.

So we've got to, you know, go 22 to 33 billion pounds of food wasted.

In the restaurant industry in the United States alone.

So understanding that we have in one hand we have food thats being wasted and we have people who are desperately in need of nutritious, wholesome foods.

So having the students each and every week, you know, contribute to that and have an understanding of that and learn about that in lecture and learn about that in lab classes.

You'll get get hands on with that.

I think, you know, really helps them realize that they can make a difference last year In 2024, we were able to distribute, just over 33,000 meals, to Auburn/Opelika here on campus Those that food was collected from just over 34,000 pounds of food that was collected from just the university.

So, not only is that food not going to waste, it's also going out into the community to benefit those who who really do need it.

So definitely in the Auburn Opelika area we have, 18 community partners, that includes our Meals on Wheels residents.

so some of our shift leaders will go door to door with the food, really kind of get to know the get to know them and get to know, kind of just build a relationship with them, through those Meals on Wheels deliveries.

And then also the, community partners, they have several different ministries and, you know, charity organizations in Lee County that were able to serve through that, here on campus, AFM, Auburn Family Meals with meals for the Auburn family.

So any students, faculty and staff member, no questions asked.

And come in to Luptin from 5:30 to 6:30 every Monday, Wednesday, Friday afternoon.

And we have individually packaged meals.

So like I said, the carbohydrates, proteins, veggies that are going to be in, the individual meals.

But then we also try to have, you know, we do have a selection of other foods that we have leftover pizza from an event or pastries from Panera in the library, that kind of thing.

We do our best to have almost like a buffet style in addition to the meals.

And we are able to, like I said, benefit the Auburn family through that, which is personally one of the one of my favorite kind of interactions.

And one favorite part of the week is getting to come to AFM As far as my personal passion for the campus kitchen, the work we do here, it started off as a way to serve my community.

So I do go to school here at Auburn university.

I'm a junior.

But I'm also from just Opelika in a town called Beauregard And so several of the community partners and the residents are out in the Auburn/Opelika community.

Just, you know, where I've grown up my entire life.

And so that's it's been really special to be able to give back and away from the resources that come from the university.

But I also see people from all over the US, from our shift leaders and our volunteers that come in every week to also give back to that community that I grew up in.

My favorite part is really getting to know people, the shift leaders who come in, there's a lot of them.

So we try to really just get to know them, help them out the best we can, for.

Because, like I said, they're the ones running the shifts.

They're the ones who are doing what we do as an organization.

And then the community we serve, the Meals on Wheels routes the community partners are part of Auburn Family Meals, which is what serves students, faculty and staff members here on campus.

Getting to interact with them three times a week and just it's it's extremely rewarding just for the relationship, the connections, we're able to create through what we do.

Hunger Solutions Institute was actually, initially thought about and semi launched as a soft launch in 2004. at the College of Human Sciences, actually had a meeting with the World Food Program, which is the largest humanitarian agency dealing in the areas of global hunger and what the World Food Program communicated to Dean Henton was that not really any colleges and universities were engaged in the area of hunger.

And so it actually began HSI began as universities fighting world hunger, which is a student grassroots movement.

So we currently engaged about 300 student organizations globally, where theres students on college campuses, who look to raise awareness around what hunger is, take action to end hunger at any level some of our campuses, work internationally, and then also to advocate for policies that can either directly or indirectly impact hunger.

And so what started as a student grassroots organization, from 2004 to about 2012, to continue to expand, mainly in the outreach area, and the board of trustees in 2012 then kind of stood up Hunger Solutions Institute as an academic center on Auburns campus.

And so since 2012, the main push for HSI has been to be the leading university in addressing food and hunger issues, across the globe.

So whether that's through teaching, research or outreach, we really push to lead the way in innovative practices to do that.

a foundational principle of Hunger Solutions Institute is that hunger is a solvable problem.

But it's only going to be solved when all disciplines and all sectors move together in a concerted effort.

So one small way that we seek to accomplish that with Hunger Solutions Institute is through our hunger studies minor, where students engage in a minor curriculum, that has an introductory class where I teach, things around the causes, consequences, and responses to hunger in order for them to really understand the complexity of the issue of hunger.

Then the students enroll in four interdisciplinary courses that focus on advocacy, leadership, and knowledge in the areas of hunger.

And then it ends with a capstone experience, which allows them to look at their discipline and all the things they learned in The Hunger minor and really think through what's a project, a culminating experience where they can look at how all these disiplines and sectors come together to combat hunger So that's just one example of how HSI, as we refer to it, approaches hunger as being the solvable problem.

And we reflect that in all the work that we do with our research and with our outreach.

But that's just an example from our teaching.

I'm a global studies major and hunger studies minor, and Kansas City, Missouri, and my student employment is technically an undergraduate research fellow.

But I also serve as Miss Auburn I took global studies because I knew I wanted to interact with really large problems, like poverty, food insecurity and then lack of adequate education abroad But I also knew that I didn't want to take a more political approach, that I really wanted something that focused on human relationships and human relationships, leading to meaningful service And that's exactly what global studies advocates for So I really loved it.

And then I found my hunger studies minor by taking a class my freshman year for semester called Hunger Causes, Consequences and Solutions.

And that led to, I guess, my research fellowship I knew that I wanted to continue learning more about hunger outside the classroom, and Alicia's always been a mentor to me.

So she took me to Cornell in my freshman year, which was crazy for the university's Fighting World Hunger International Summit.

And that's where I got to know her So I emailed her and then applied for the research fellowship, and then it's just kind of developed from there Hunger solutions institute work fits within food U in a few different ways.

We obviously being an academic center at Auburn University, do teaching research and outreach activities similar to, part of the mission of Food U We also do multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary work where we work across campus, across sectors and disciplines to address food issues.

A bit of a different approach that we take, to the food U work that maybe others on campus dont take is we address larger issues throughout the state, the nation and the globe in order to address food issues.

I think what Auburn is doing with giving students is real opportunities to interact with.

The issue of hunger builds a lot of confidence in students.

So like I said earlier, I think something that our generation struggles with is we see these problems as huge.

We see things like poverty, hunger, food insecurity.

We see all these things really big problems, and we think that we're too small to interact with them.

But when Auburn offers us the opportunity to take research fellowships, to volunteer, to intern with the Hunger Solutions Institute, that gives us a chance to see that the work that we do actually does impact real people.

Like with my, research fellowship, I work with the Ag milk incentive program in the work that I do and outreach work that I do with that specifically.

ends in more people having access to more Snap dollars.

So the like the better marketing we have more outreach we do, the more families end up getting more from their Snap benefits.

So when I was just doing the theoretical research and the theoretical work in my classes, it was super interesting.

But when I was doing the work that put more food in people's pantries, then it was like, oh, this is a real thing.

This is a real problem.

But I have real solutions and I have real things to contribute.

And I don't know that I would have come to that realization until I enter the workforce had I not been offered the opportunities that I have at Auburn I think markets like the one we're standing in, especially just being a local grocer, are really important for giving people a connection to the food that they eat.

When we think about the issue of hunger, it's also the issue adequate nutrition.

And when you have people who feel connected to the foods that they're eating and the farmers that are supplying the foods that they're eating Its gong to encourage them to make healthier eating habits and healthier eating choices.

I think things like this not only give a connection to the people and the food that theyre eating, but they also bring the local community together.

And we know that culture is what shapes our eating habits.

So having a culture of healthy food consumption and being aware of the foods that we're eating, the sources that they come from, are really important.

Beyond the support of the College of Human Sciences and the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station, which provides about 15% of our operational dollars, the remaining come from individuals, foundations, corporations, state and federal funding.

And so the philanthropic support of Hunger Solutions Institute is hugely, overwhelmingly, important.

A few ways that the philanthropic efforts help us is, with the philanthropic, support, we're able to do really innovative, creative things, incubate some of our priorities, so that we can take risks in order to figure out what might be the best program and the best situation.

Another example of the philanthropic support that we receive and its extension into our work Is much of our state and federal dollars require match dollars.

So not only do we receive support from a corporation, but that support from a corporation helps us access another dollar from either state or federal dollars.

And so, in addition to allowing us to incubate really innovative, high risk activities, it also allows us to scale and to, really expand the work that we're doing as we look into the future.

Long term sustainability of HSI is highly dependent on, philanthropic efforts, whether it's foundations who truly believe in our mission or an individual who just has a passion for the mission that we do.

Everyone has a place to really support HSIs work.

It's important for people to give to Auburn because it's the fuel for Auburn.

Tuition pays for Auburn But philanthropy fuels Auburn.

And so every project that we do, every, students are affected by philanthropy.

Faculty are affected by philanthropy.

It changes us.

It makes us better.

It amplifies everything that we do Food U at Auburn is a project that allows students and faculty to use cutting edge technology that changes the world and allows us to change our community and improves our community.

But it also affects food insecurity across the world.

So are the philanthropy dollars that go to that change lives not only at all of our forecast across the entire country.

So at Auburn, we work really hard to have the best student center experience in the country.

And so this is one of those perfect examples of a project that allowed students to use their hands to use time to work together.

They work with their faculty and it affects their community.

That affects the students that they go to school with.

So it's a project that allows us to shape a students experience to make them a better product in the country, but also allows them to affect, do meaningful work that changes their life and their peers lives.

With regards to the support we receive from our donors, from Tiger Giving Day, from other campaigns and initiatives to go to support what we do.

As well as just food insecurity on campus as a whole.

We definitely rely on that for our day to day operations.

So to all the food we're able to store goes into large foil pans that is then stored in a deep freezer So paying for the pans for the packaging containers that all of those meals are being delivered in, that that does cost money.

And so really the day to day operations and the support that, it's kind of required, the financial support it's required to simply buying materials, that kind of thing.

We love to have events on campus for our shift leaders, for our community partners out in Auburn/Opelika and then as well as with, you know, the different organizations and collaboration that we get food from, and so some financial support from donors from Tiger Giving Day goes to you know kind of help help us grow on that side as well.

So I think donors are key in making projects like this that don't turn a easily quantifiable profit.

Making them happen and exist and be able to flourish like this garden itself.

Because we have students that come up here to study day in and day out, we have prospective students they brought up here on tours.

We have athletes coming and coming up here on tours.

We have guests of the hotel that are, that are paying to stay in the hotel and which this garden is an amenity for.

And then so there's things like that that are, that are turning a, they are turning a profit in some form that they're getting students to Auburn, they're at increased, they're enhancing the Auburn student experience, but there's no actual profit being derived in the end on our end.

So we're not making money.

We need the donors to actually allow us to be able to do these projects that, support the support, the more nuanced areas of the student experience.

It's not like we're a dining hall where we're going to give you this head of lettuce, and you're going to give me this in return.

We're going to grow this garden for these, for the culinary staff, for students to come up here and enjoy.

And that has a, that has a, has a quantifiable impact on student experience that I think donors are necessary in allowing, allowing to happen.

Philanthropy at Auburn can be scholarships.

It can be faculty support.

It can be lab and lab support.

It can be facility support, but it also can be projects and can be passion points for an alum, something that keeps them up at night.

The Grand Challenge of the country.

It can be really large problems that they can fix through Auburn University, through our students and through our research.

Bonnie Plants has been a fantastic supporter of our food program.

Anything that we ask for that we need, they provide willingly and they're happy to do so.

They provide very high quality, vegetable transplants that go directly into our gardens and our other plots here on campus.

And that food, from those transplants, eventually makes its way to plates all across campus and in restaurants.

Without Bonnie, this wouldn't be possible Philanthropy has been important to Bonnie Plants, really Since our founding in 1918.

There was actually a Bonnie who founded Bonnie Plants, and it was really important to her and her husband to give back to the communities in which they lived and worked.

So the very first crop that Bonnie planted, actually, Bonnie set aside acreage to donate to local, people in need in their communities.

If you fast forward to today, that still rings true for Bonnie Plants today.

It's an important part of who we are.

Our mission is to enhance people's lives through the power of plants and philanthropy goes hand in hand with that, and that's why it's so important to us as a company.

Bonnie plants is the largest and only supplier of vegetable and herb plants for home gardens in the US.

We have 40.

We operate in every state.

We have facilities around the country, over 80 of them, that deliver plants fresh every day from our farms to every Lowe's, Home Depot, Walmart, Tractor Supply, Kroger, anywhere you can find plants, you'll find Bonnie plants.

part of our mission, really, from a philanthropic standpoint, is we have a Bonnie Plants Foundation.

It's a 501 C3 charitable organization.

One of the focus areas of the foundation is to really help the next generation and cultivate the next generation of horticulture leaders, and that starts right here with students at Auburn University and our commitment to support scholarships to support internships, to support class work projects with real world, practical experience that we can give to the students here in Auburn.

Really spanning the gamut from sort of beginning to end.

In a student's experience here in Auburn University.

We want to be part of that at Bonnie Plants.

Food U and the philanthropy that powers Food U allow students to work on something that matters and allows students all over campus, different constituencies, to come together on a project together that affects their peers.

They get to use it that day.

They know that that's something that they work on together, is used on campus every day.

And then the meaningful piece of that is that they get to know that the technology they're working on and the research that they're doing affects larger communities and affects food insecurity.

So not only are they helping their peers and providing something daily that we need in our and our dining halls, but they're also changing the world on a grand challenge that we need across our country.

And that's being done right here at Auburn.

That's the power of philanthropy.

We are really trying to offer people the opportunity consistently to see what we're doing here.

We're very blessed by the fact that the projects that we are working are super visible.

Right?

We've got rooftop garden, we've got greenhouses, we've got indoor grow rooms and container farms.

All of those things are sexy and exciting when it comes to food production, which is where you have to be when you want to attract people.

So our goal is to never say no to people who want to come see what we're doing.

We consistently get we probably get 8 to 10 tours a week, 52 to 52 weeks a year, nonstop.

So which is a blessing for us.

It's a challenge, but it's also a blessing.

This story is worth being told, and we always say yes to the opportunity to tell it we are focused on producing leaders in the industry.

So it's very important for them to understand the entire food lifecycle.

You know, first of all, and I get to speak personaly for myself as well too, is getting a better appreciation of food itself.

So when you know where food comes from, that's really, really important.

You want to then work with that food and produce something creative and innovative for the public to consume.

But also, I think it's really important to have a good appreciation of farmers and producers.

Really, they are the most important people in the entire food lifecycle, and the supply chain.

So making sure that we appreciate them, we understand the resources, the time, the energy, the nutrients, the money, everything that's invested into producing food, like so, you know, for instance, it's very easy to go to a store and purchase something like a tomato or whatever place in your fridge and forget about it and then let it go off.

But when you've grown so determined, you know what you can put into that you're going to you're going to treat that with the respect that that it deserves.

So it's great for our students to understand that as business people, it's very important to understand it so they can engage with growers and they have more confidence and they understand that also from the culinary standpoint, too, it really sparks creativity and motivation and innovation.

Because again, when you've put a lot of effort into producing food and you get 50 pounds of peaches or 50 pounds of locally grown okra or whatnot, and you're in a restaurant, you want to work hard to make sure that first of all your being creative and incorporate that into your menu at different levels and into different dishes.

But also, how are you going to preserve that food you might not be able to use all that food in that week or in that day So how are you going to preserve that food so it can be utilized in different seasons?

you know, we model a small city when you really think about it in urban areas.

So it could be a neighborhood in, in New York or all over the country.

And so having some of the methodologies as far as, you know, having indoor growing and things like that really work for, you know, having the ability to duplicate this in urban areas.

And that's really what this is about, is like, what is the food system look like If it was better, if it was, you know, if if we're really doing our best to to be surprised that food is a resource throughout its lifecycle, like, like I talked about.

I mean, that would be this is the idea generator Right?

So we have all these bright young minds, we have all of these different disciplines.

And the more that we can interact with all of them, the richer that experience becomes.

And hopefully at the end of the day, we have ideas that really do affect our world in general.

one particular hope I have for Food U is to really consider and measure the collective impact of the work that we're having.

There's so many stakeholders and partners around the university that are doing this work.

And how have we collectively impacted campus and beyond?

So measuring that.

Another hope that have is, really helping even more people understand more departments, more faculty, more students understand how their work dovetails with Food U You don't have to directly do work with people to really impact how food is available to others.

Seeing the impact that this program has on our students that work in this program, but also students outside the program, they hear about this.

They know that where their food is coming from, of course, our partners all across campus and our collaborators all have impactful stories to tell.

It's great.

It really is.

And truly the best part of my job.

when I look at the rooftop garden, what an amazing partnership that is, for our for our vertical farms have been very successful.

I think we've had more students that have been able to get a job, do something in their discipline.

I think having students get recruited out of this program, you think about that.

This is a horticulture student that people are coming to and coming to campus to literally recruit because they have this experience that nobody's getting right, not at an undergraduate or even graduate level.

It's far as a commercial growing environment within their discipline.

I think that's a great achievement.

I think, you know, having.

The, I guess our nutritional resource center.

I mean, I think that's a that's an amazing partnership that we've had.

We're serving so many students both through the, the food pantry and through campus kitchens.

And we I think that's, all of these things matter.

And ultimately they do contribute to that student experience and hopefully, you know, maybe one or more of them impacts students But ultimately, what we want is for students to remember something, right?

That's that's my goal.

So there's a there's a core memory somewhere in there that has something to do with food on this campus.

And if we achieve that, then I'm happy.

We're growing.

It is a full, full blown snowball effect right now.

We've got lots of momentum, so I'd like to see that continue.

As we get more employees, we need more production capabilities.

So my vision and what we're working on right now is increasing our facilities.

Right.

We just got four more containers.

We only had two before we're getting a new greenhouse.

So that kind of stuff is really, really big when it comes to getting students a good experience, but also producing incredible stuff for our chef and partners.

I mean, I think the more that we're exposed to different ideas and different parts of campus, the better off your experience and the richer that experience is it's blossomed into this wonderful partnership with the College of Agriculture.

Could not do it without that core partnership.

That's who's really been the backbone of this relationship.

But as that continued, it's really we've found new partners and new players, whether it's culinary sciences or hunger solutions insitute all of these folks that have become really, amazing, contributors to the to the overall thought process.

And what are we doing off of sustainability is another one that really has contributed as well.

I love what we do every day and we feel so lucky.

We feel like we get to do work that changes lives, changes our students lives, changes our leaders lives, changes our faculty members lives, and then affects the grand challenges of our community.

I'm proud of the work that we do here.

I feel honored to do the work that we that we do every day.