A massive $1.5 million grant was given to Purdue University’s Department of Agricultural Economics. According to the press release, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture gave the grant to fund research towards a project set to create the Purdue Center for Food Conservation and Waste Reduction.
According to the project’s principal investigator Brenna Ellison, the new center will be a hub for those in the public and private sectors to engage “practical strategies towards managing food waste and conservation.” Additionally, the center will develop the National Extension Food Loss and Waste strategy that aligns with the Cooperative Extension’s National Framework for Health Equity and Well-Being.
“Many efforts to reduce food waste in the U.S. are top-down in nature and sometimes provide ‘one-size-fits-all’ guidance,” said Ellison. “We’re interested in a bottom-up approach, working with different types of households to see how their food management behaviors differ. Our hope is to collect data and observe patterns, eventually co-creating behavioral strategies to reduce food waste that is tailored to households’ needs.”
Melissa Pflugh Prescott, assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University and long-time collaborator, will work alongside Ellison.
In the fall, the center will begin recruiting and training college student food equity specialists from five to six communities across the U.S. to “establish a baseline for household food literacy and food waste.” Collecting data on household food and waste, the specialists are helping to prepare future generations to achieve a more sustainable food system. The specialists will also be offered a mini-grant program where, depending on their observations, they can apply for small grants towards improving food literacy, nutrition security, and health equity in their home communities.
“We want to meet households where they are and hear about their unique barriers and challenges in managing food waste. By utilizing citizen science, our desire is to actively engage U.S. households in the conversation to co-create a shared understanding of feasible, culturally appropriate strategies to improve food literacy and household food waste. We also hope to empower households to be more resilient and nutrition-secure.” Ellison concluded.
