From Garden to Pantry - Berkeley Food Institute

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Foodscape Map: From Garden to Pantry

At UC Berkeley, 39 percent of Undergraduate students and 23 percent of graduate students experience food insecurity. In response to this, a cross-campus committee of students, staff, faculty and community members was formed in 2014 to develop a diversity of food, housing and financial resources to support students. Food security resources aim to increase food literacy, nutrition, cooking, and budgeting skills and increase access to nutritious food via food assistance programs and an on-campus student food pantry in the MLK Student Union. In 2017, in an effort to increase the supply of fresh produce in the pantry and link student-led agriculture efforts with Basic Needs, campus farms and gardens started delivering produce to the pantry. What has developed since is a student-led and coordinated micro food system that is driven by and for student pantry users.

The illustrations below describe the process from garden to pantry.

From Garden to Pantry

planting the seeds

Our food pantry is currently receiving donations from five campus farms and gardens, all of which are student-led or have strong student participation. This includes the UC Gill Tract Community Farm, Clark Kerr Chef’s Garden, the Student Organic Gardening Association (SOGA), the Oxford Tract research fields, and the on-campus Sustainable Landscape Decal.

Student gardeners plan, design, grow, and harvest all of the produce and in doing so train hundreds of students a year on urban agriculture.

Here’s the amount of produce from each campus garden so far this semester.

it’s how we roll

To get from the field to the pantry there are a variety of transportation methods from foot to car to electric vehicle. Most recently, we’ve also added bike trailers designed and built by a high school summer program in the College of Environmental Design.

Green and sustainable—it’s how we like to roll.

food for all

Once in the pantry, produce gets resorted and displayed for students to take home and cook with. It adds to produce donated from other sources including local farmer’s markets, supermarkets and warehouse distribution recovered waste.

Any produce about to go to waste is sent to the Berkeley Student Food Collective who repurposes the food into sliding scale meals. Here’s what’s in our pantry and where it all came from in the month of March.

what do you want to eat?

In coordination with University Health Services and the Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology Department, Basic Needs is working to integrate this produce into nutrition demonstrations and personal food security courses.

The Food pantry also regularly surveys student users to better understand what produce they would like to see in the pantry and would like to learn how to cook. This information informs crop planning in the gardens, recipe development and workshops.

Produce	Specific Foods
Fruit	Mandarin, oranges, apples
Herbs	Cilantro, chamomile, rosemary, thyme, bay, oregano, green onion, parsley
Greens	Collards, kale (baby, dino, curly), mustard greens, purple mustard, spinach, chard, arugula, anise, mint, lettuce, broccoli, nasturtiums
Root Vegetables	Radish, beets, carrots
Cruciferous	Broccoli, broccolini, brussel sprouts
Squash	Spaghetti squash