Education & Awareness | Stanford R&DE

Overview

Engaging with the food we eat and grow offers us the opportunity to explore issues related to health, the environment, social equity and the global economy. The Sustainable Food Program fosters this experiential learning in our dining halls, our organic gardens, and the classroom by creating opportunities for students to experience agriculture and sustainability as integral parts of their education and everyday life. Below are some examples of how we bring this to life.

Sustainable Food Events

To raise awareness about current topics in sustainability, we host fun and engaging events throughout the year. The following represents some of the events you can look forward to!

Farm to Fork Cooking Series

The Farm to Fork Cooking Series is part of the Teaching Kitchen @ Stanford cooking education program. This special series of cooking classes incorporates sustainability topics such as organic agriculture, humanely-raised meats, vegetarianism and antibiotics in the food system. Through culinary experience, the group will learn about the featured sustainable ingredients and the effects these food choices have on the environment and their lifestyle. Classes are taught frequently throughout the academic year.

Farm to Fork Research Dinners

Have you ever wondered how your meal made it from the farm to your fork? At this series of informal and engaging dinner discussions, Stanford researchers discuss their current research projects in areas such as sustainable food production, policy, and management.

Garden Work Days

Garden work days are hosted in each organic dining hall garden by our student garden managers. Garden work days give students the opportunity to learn more about where their food comes from and how it grows.

Sustainable Seafood Week

During this weeklong celebration, R&DE Stanford Dining raises awareness about sustainable seafood through featuring special dining hall menus, film screenings, cooking classes with guest chefs, and panel talks with Alaskan salmon fishermen, including Heather and Kirk Hardcastle of Taku River Reds Fishery.

Earth Day Dinner

To celebrate this internationally recognized day, Arrillaga Family Dining Commons hosts a special Earth Day dinner every year. To highlight R&DE Stanford Dining’s sustainable initiatives and earth-friendly practices, guests can explore resource tables with presentations from local farms and other sustainable purchasing partners.

Food Revolution Day

R&DE Stanford Dining participates in the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation’s Food Revolution Day every year in May. The goal of Food Revolution Day is to educate and inspire people to learn to cook healthy, sustainable food. Learn more about Food Revolution Day at http://www.foodrevolutionday.com

Stanford Food Summit

The Stanford Food Summit is a symposium for Stanford researchers and members of community-based food organizations to gather and discuss solutions to some of the nation’s and the planet’s most challenging and timely questions in food-related issues. The agenda of this annual event includes presentations on food system-related research projects that have grown out of Stanford community partnerships. R&DE Stanford Dining is on the planning committee for and participates in the annual Stanford Food Summit, hosted by the School of Medicine. For more information, please visit http ://foodsummit.stanford.edu/

BeWell Classes

The BeWell program offers class to staff on health and wellness lifestyle subjects. In partnership with BeWell, the Sustainable Food Program teaches a number of classes on healthy and sustainable living. For more information, please visit https://bewell.stanford.edu/

Academics

The Sustainable Food Program actively collaborates with staff and faculty to provide educational opportunities to students and others on the Stanford campus. Through lectures, class projects, and collaborative coursework, we are able to engage students in many topics relating to the food system.

Current course collaborations include:

Grow It, Cook It, Eat It: Personal Empowerment in Interdisciplinary Food Systems

This course is designed to give students an introduction to food systems and the deeply interdisciplinary nature of food. With an emphasis on local food networks and progressive food initiatives at Stanford, this course will empower students to become informed and responsible consumers in order to understand and, if they choose, change the food system on a local and global level.

d.school FEED Collaborative

As part of the Design School’s FEED Collaborative, students collaborate with R&DE Stanford Dining to study and implement design solutions that encourage healthy and sustainable living.

Guest Lectures

The Sustainable Food Program Manager guest lectures in numerous classes each year, including Food and Society — Politics, Culture, and History, and Sustainability and Collapse.

The Sustainable Food Program publishes a bi-weekly Sustainable Food Newsletter. Sign up for the Sustainable Food Newsletter here: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/sustainablefood