Student environmental group promotes local food

By: Michelle Firestone

Posted: 2/24/09

In keeping with the University of Connecticut's green efforts, a new student environmental group was formed last fall.

"Real Slow Food," a group formed by Meghan Misset, an 8th-semester nutritional sciences major, was created to raise awareness about sustainable agriculture and locally grown food.

"I've been seeing in my own interest and research that there is a real disconnect between students and their food," Misset said. "Many don't know where their food is coming from."

The group is a combination of two different groups: the "Real Food Challenge" and "Slow Food."

According to Rachel Pope, an 8th-semester dietetics major and the group's vice president, Misset put the two groups together because she liked both goals. The goal of "Real Food Challenge" is to get 20 percent of food in campus dining halls to be local, while the goal of "Slow Food" is to "know where food comes from," Pope said.

Misset was particularly inspired by the Local Routes program at Whitney Dining hall, where she works. Local Routes is a program through which UConn gets locally grown food served in its dining halls. Of all the dining halls, Whitney serves the highest percentage of the food.

Misset and five other members of the group attended the Northeast Summit at UMass-Amherst over the weekend, a summit designed to raise awareness of sustainable and locally grown food. According to Misset, the summit had two major goals: its indirect goal was to build enthusiasm, but the main goal was to educate about sustainability.

"It was more of a learning exchange," she said.

Misset and Zbigniew Grabowski, a graduate student who is a member of the Eco-Garden Club, led a seminar entitled, "From Idea to Action: Broad-Spectrum Student Activism and the Academic Institution," in which they discussed what they have done at UConn in terms of sustainability. Misset said that 30 to 35 people attended the seminar.

"It was very productive," she said.

After the seminar, participants wrote their emails on a list so that they could continue to share ideas with one another.

The summit inspired the club to think about ways they can expand their efforts and they made various contacts to help them do so.

"It got us thinking more outside the university and how we can make it bigger," Misset said.

One of their contacts is the Northeast Sustainable Working Group (NESAWG), an "umbrella group" with representatives from 12 northeastern states. According to the organization's Web site, its mission is "to strengthen the work of its members by providing active support and assistance in achieving shared food system goals."

Last fall, the club worked in collaboration with the Eco-Garden club to hold a "Guerilla Picnic" where they served food to students, such as peanut butter sandwiches made with homemade peanut butter, salads, and Meghan Bars, granola bars named after Misset.

"It was cold, so not a lot of people showed up," Pope said. "People really liked the peanut butter."

"Real Slow Food" hopes to participate in Spring Fling and Earth Day events, where they will set up tables.

Misset took away a lot from the summit, including ways she can continue to raise awareness about sustainability after graduating in May. She believes that the sustainable movement has a lot of potential.

"I think this movement started at college, but it's going to gain momentum," Misset said. "Other people are going to see our passion and drive and want to get involved."

Misset is particularly optimistic about the future of her group and its impact on the university, a leader in sustainability among colleges across the country.

"UConn has come so far, but we can do so much more," she said.