WPI Center for Sustainable Food Systems

In a college town like Worcester, the many colleges and universities are an amazing resource for the community and for coalitions like ours.  They provide resources in the way of student volunteers and interns, as well as the capability to do research projects to benefit organizations such as ours that have very little capacity to conduct research ourselves.  This also provides great hands-on and real-world experience for students that are connecting theory to practice.

WPI (Worcester Polytechnic Institute  has something called IQPs (Individual Qualifying Projects) that all students complete their junior year.  Students work during their entire junior year on these group projects in collaboration with an external group “sponsor”.

Professor Bob Hersh started the Center for Sustainable Food Systems at WPI as a way to organize and promote IQP projects related to the food system.  During 2011-2012 students worked on projects related to food security, farmers’ markets, and bioshelters.  You can read those reports here.

Right now we’re in the midst of another round of great projects that students are putting the final touches on as we roll into Spring.  Here’s what they’re working on (reports will be available here sometime in May.)

Student Projects:  2012-2013

1. Identifying land for urban agriculture in Worcester
Sponsor: Worcester Food Policy & Active Living Council

There is a growing movement to produce and process more of our food locally. In many cities, urban farmers and residents are growing food in community gardens, on rooftops and balconies, in greenhouses, and in the many leftover spaces one finds in cities—alleys, vacant lots, and along sidewalks. Some estimates suggest there are cities that supply much of their own fruits and vegetables. For example, Beijing apparently is self-sufficient in vegetables; city residents in Accra in West Africa produce some 80% of their leafy vegetable needs; and in Havana, Cuba nearly 50% of the city’s fresh produce is grown within city limits. Urban agriculture is seen by many as a way to enhance food security, reduce a city’s ecological footprint, and revitalize urban environments. And yet we know little about the potential for urban agriculture in a city such as Worcester.  In this project, the student team is working with local growers and others interested in urban agriculture to develop a geographic information system (GIS)-based  land inventory and a searchable database of municipally owned and tax-foreclosed land in Worcester that could be used for food production.  The students devised suitability criteria to evaluate the parcels.  The criteria include:  parcel size, tree coverage, slope, past uses, water availability, access to public transit, and socio-demographic characteristics of the neighborhood.  The project will consider how urban farms could be integrated into Worcester’s cityscape.

2.  Food Choice among Worcester High School Students

Sponsors: Boys and Girls Club of Worcester and Worcester Food & Active Living Policy Council

In Worcester, as elsewhere, the rate of obesity among children and adolescents is increasing at unprecedented rates. Studies have shown obesity is related to the “foodscape”, which are the places where children and adolescents come into contact with food. Schools, of course, are a major component of the foodscape.  In Worcester, for example, the public schools each day prepare nearly 16,000 student lunches, 9,700 breakfasts, and more than 2,000 snacks. Worcester schools have a good deal of control over their food environments and in recent years enacted policies to improve food quality. But the food opportunities around schools and along home to school routes are not so easily controlled and may contribute to obesity. In this project students will use spatial analysis software to identify the number and type of food outlets  and their proximity to selected schools, consider how various food outlets influence the eating patterns of school children, work with local high school students to better understand the food choices they make, develop outreach materials (including short videos with local students) to help students make more informed choices, and make recommendations to assist policy makers encourage or create a healthier food environment in the vicinity of schools.

3. Implementing a Regional Food Hub in Worcester
Sponsor: ATTRA, National Center for Appropriate Technology

Studies suggest that less than 2% of all food consumed in the United States is locally produced. To understand how the food system in Worcester operates it is helpful to think of a “foodshed”, which is a geographic area which supplies a city with food.  In this project students are focusing on the regional aspects of the flow of food from producer to consumer. The project’s goal is to investigate the feasibility of a developing a food hub for aggregating, processing and marketing regionally grown food products from small and mid-sized producers to local institutions (e.g., schools, hospitals, colleges) and to areas of need in the city.   Students will identify and map sources of current and potential agricultural production in the region,  identify the distribution networks that transport food to various outlets (supermarkets, corner stores, restaurants, schools, hospitals, farmers markets, etc), and make recommendations about implementing a food hub in Worcester.
4. Designing Mobile Farmers Markets
Sponsor: Regional Environmental Council
Many neighborhoods in Worcester have limited access to nutritious food.  A local organization, the Regional Environmental Council, launched a mobile farmers market van that travels to food insecure neighborhoods to sell locally produced food.   REC staff members on the mobile farmers market face many challenges marketing produce, including how to best outfit and equip the van for maximum efficiency. In this project, students are designing a solar powered refrigeration unit and other enhancements to make the van more attractive and better able to serve local customers.

6. Farmer attitudes to the Freight Farm Concept
Sponsor: Freight Farms
In 2012, Freight Farms developed a hydroponic system to grow basil and head lettuce in repurposed shipping container. The concept is premised on the notion that by enabling high-yield crop production in any climate, Freight Farms can help create a foundation to grow a local food economy and sustainable food system. While the concept is most applicable to developing urban food production on underutilized or vacant properties, it could be a niche for small scale growers in a rural or peri-urban location who want to extend their growing season, or diversify their revenue steam. The student team will investigate farmers’ attitudes toward a freight farm, and the feasibility of adapting it operations.

For more information contact Prof. Robert Hersh at hersh@wpi.edu or 508.831.5522.