Since Spring 2012, students of Jill Wrigley’s INDS 430 Food Systems Seminar learn about the intersecting benefits, problems and challenges generated by modern food systems. Now, thanks to a BreakingGround grant (umbcbreakingground.wordpress.com),  students in Spring 2014 will get their hands dirty while challenging their minds and forging new relationships beyond the classroom.

Two thirds of the new course will be spent in small group work devoted to various projects on and off campus. Each project asks students to propose or enact some improvement of the food system at UMBC or in a neighboring community or schools. Examples include (but are not limited to):

Growing Microgreens at UMBC:  What are the nutritional advantages of microgreens and how can we deliver them to plates of fellow UMBC students?  This project will integrate horticulture, entrepreneurship, marketing/communications and policy.

Edible Campus: The K-12 community is creating edible schoolyards in schools across the country, and globe.  Why not edible campuses? Students selecting this option will research how and where UMBC might develop this idea.

Garden Pals with Neighboring schools and communities:  Students will utilize the UMBC Biology Greenhouse to grow vegetable seedlings for transplant into container or in-ground gardens at various partner sites within the K-12 community.

What’s on Our Plate at UMBC?: Students selecting this option would undertake a “community food assessment” of the food provided to them at UMBC using an adapted version of the Real Food Calculator created by Real Food Challenge, or using an instrument of the students’ own design.

Food waste and food recovery at UMBC:  How can UMBC             reduce food waste and alleviate hunger and promote health in the           Baltimore region?