Food Recovery (Hungry Harvest and Baltimore Orchard Project)

Project: Food Recovery and Recovered Food CSA (in progress)

  1. Project Description: Students working on this project will collaborate with one or both community partners, the non-profit Baltimore Orchard Project [BOP] (orchardproject.org) or the for-profit social enterprise Hungry Harvest  [HH] (www.hungryharvest.net).
  • For HH,
    • students will research 150-200 packing houses in the regional economy where food waste occurs as fresh fruits and vegetables are discarded mostly for consumer aesthetic preferences. Students will work with HH to gain access to that wasted food for redistribution through HH into their recovered food CSA business.
    • Students will do some market research, outreach and recruitment to establish an HH recovered food CSA here at UMBC. Students will also undertake a democratic process of some sort to determine where the 1:1 donated CSA shares will go. (Possibly to fellow students in need of support? Possibly to area refugee families? My Brothers Keeper in Irvington?)
  • For BOP:
    • “Funky Fruit Initiative”:  Participants in this project can conduct market research about how to name and brand this campaign (ugly fruit? funky fruit? “just fruit”?), can research where and how to recover such fruit in our regional food system, and work to recruit one or two retail outlets, e.g., GIANT, Mom’s Organic Market and/or Apples and Oranges in East Baltimore, that would be willing to participate in a pilot retail initiative promoting the sale of these kinds of fruits (and veggies).   You may also consider recruiting Chartwells to participate in a pilot marketing campaign.

 

  1. Identification of Food System issues that this project seeks to address (e.g., healthy food access on campus, community food access for non-UMBC community members, environmental sustainability, reduction of food waste, etc.):
  •  This project seeks to improve healthy food access at UMBC and locally and to reduce pre-consumer food waste in the region.

 

  1. Project Goals/Objectives (some may be conditional, e.g., if we get permission for X, then Y):
  •  Find recoverable fruit and vegetables in the region
  • secure agreements to donate or purchase this produce
  • develop market outlets for this produce
  • recruit and organize an HH recovered food CSA at UMBC
  • research and plan for HH provided donations to a group or groups that the UMBC community wants to support

 

  1. Project deliverables (may be more focused and specific than project goals)
  2. Associated Cognitive and Affective Learning Objectives 
    1. Develop a relationship with a particular community and people in a nearby Baltimore City neighborhood.
    2. Learn how Chartwells (UMBC’s Dining Services Contractor) purchases fruit and other produce and whether and how it could accommodate a pilot project with recovered fruit.
    3. Acquire knowledge about pre-consumer food waste globally and regionally.

6. Actual or potential partners/collaborators

  • Retail food markets
  • Non-profits or social service agencies that would partner to deliver CSA shares to families in need of food
  • UMBC Dining Services’ contractor Chartwells
  • BOP and HH

 

  1. Current and potential stakeholders or interested parties (both on and off campus)

 

  1. Skills and knowledge that will be useful to the project
  • Communications (fliers)
  • Use of social media
  • Organizational
  • Speaking/networking
  • Research skills

 

  1. Resources (books, AV, people) for the project
  1. Budget and budgetary considerations  Outreach materials, marketing materials?  $200-300
  1. Probable communication/outreach needs and opportunities
  2. Preliminary needs and issues concerning the long-term sustainability of the project
  3. Likely or possible challenges this project may encounter

Coordinating with off-site, non-UMBC partners

Getting retailers to agree to take on a pilot project

  1. Student final project possibilities (10 page research paper + tangible deliverable, or 25 page research paper with reflections on links to class project)

 

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