What is the Sustainable Food Systems Network?
The Sustainable Food Systems Network includes the Dr. Keiko Miwa Ross Student Farm at Penn State, the Student Farm Club, the Food Systems minor, community food system partnerships, and course-client collaborations. Through our multi-faceted programs, we provide diverse opportunities for engagement with sustainability challenges and solutions in food and agricultural systems.
One Program, Three Pillars
Learn, Think, Grow
Drawing on capabilities within many colleges and disciplines, students develop knowledge and skills through hands-on and real-world learning that prepare them to address complex issues facing our modern food system.
Rooted in Community
Through engaged scholarship and outreach activities, students, faculty, and community members meaningfully connect with one another and their food system.
Farm to Campus
We view our campus as a microcosm for us to build and demonstrate a local and sustainable food system, with tens of thousands of students, staff and faculty, a network of residential dining halls, fine dining establishments and an affiliated retirement community.
Indigenous Land
Acknowledgement
The Pennsylvania State University campuses are located on the original homelands of the Erie,Haudenosaunee (Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and Tuscarora), Lenape (Delaware), Shawnee (Absentee, Eastern, and Oklahoma), Susquehannock, and Wahzhazhe (Osage) Nations. As a land grant institution, we acknowledge and honor the traditional caretakers of these lands and strive to understand and model their responsible stewardship. We also acknowledge the longer history of these lands and our place in that history. Consistent with the University’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, understanding the historical and current experiences of Indigenous peoples will help inform the work we do; collectively as a university to engage in building relationships through academic scholarship, collaborative partnerships, community service, enrollment and retention efforts acknowledging our past, our present and future Indigenous Nations.
Program History
From 2013-2016, we convened a series of listening sessions that shaped the elements of the Sustainable Food Systems Network at Penn State. From the beginning, members of our learning community emphasized that the program be student-centered and should stand on three legs. First, a Food Systems minor offers interdisciplinary and engaged learning, second, at the center of the Food Systems curriculum is the Student Farm, and third, an active engagement and outreach program connects the campus community with the interests and needs of the broader community in which it is nested.
The program director, a core group of faculty and an enthusiastic group of student leaders established the many academic and engagement initiatives of the program. The thriving Student Farm Club was established by students in August 2015. In spring 2016, we broke ground and launched the Student Farm at Penn State on a pilot site on Penn State’s University Park campus. Now, the Dr. Keiko Miwa Ross Student Farm has expanded to 4 acres, has Food Systems Coordinator and Education and Operations Manager staff positions and organizes engaging programs across the campus and community.
Our Results
Our network has grown rapidly since it began in 2016, and we are excited to share our impact on the campus and community in the past year through a colorful infographic!
Click the image to enlarge and learn about our efforts.
We are proud to share that this informational one-pager was designed by Eden Balog, the graphic design intern for the Sustainable Food Systems Network. To learn what more about our interdisciplinary Course-Client Collaborations, click here. Explore more student projects in the projects archive.
Check out our partners!
Dr. Keiko Miwa Ross
The newly named Dr. Keiko Miwa Ross Student Farm has a bright future full of possibilities, thanks to the generosity of Dr. Ross. Dr. Ross lives at The Village in State College, and she was named Penn State’s 2020 Philanthropist of the Year. Dr. Ross has a unique connection to the farm in that she can see it out her window! She has visited the farm over the past several years during events held for Village residents and the community.
This personal connection with the farm motivated Dr. Ross to donate $2 million to its expansion and operation in November 2020. This donation came at a critical time for the farm, as it is currently undergoing a major expansion. The extraordinary gift will allow the farm to expand not only its size, but also its technology and capacity for community engagement.
Students, alumni and faculty are thrilled about this permanent support for the farm program. The opportunities from here are endless, and we are excited to explore the future!