The Food Institute within the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University Bloomington may be one of the tastiest places on campus for students and faculty.
“Culturally oriented, and biologically necessary, food can be a powerful convener for humans, and at the Food Institute, we aim to be a hub for human connections to food,” said James Farmer, Director of the Food Institute and an associate professor at the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs.
The Food Institute hosts a meeting space for members of the College and campus communities and is complemented by kitchens for group cooking and food demonstrations. “Whether you’re a student wanting to learn more about cooking or where your food comes from, or a faculty member seeking connections to other researchers, we host events where people can find one another across food systems disciplines,” said Jodee Smith, the Institute’s Assistant Director.
The Institute supports collaborative efforts within the College and across IU, and serves to expand IU’s leadership role in the rapidly growing and highly interdisciplinary field of food studies.
“The Institute focuses undergraduate education and research, on faculty research and graduate training, as well as experiential learning opportunities,” said Professor Farmer. “Our work is dedicated to addressing the pressing human and environmental challenges of providing both sustaining and sustainable food for a changing planet.”
He added: “We have such a unique and dynamic space here – over the course of a day, we may see a faculty member hard at work in the kitchen preparing food for a workshop, pots bubbling away on the stovetop and filling the air with rich, tempting smells that waft towards the students, and researchers having meetings in offices about food insecurity or sustainable food and farming.”
The mission of the IU Food Institute is to promote innovative research, education, and public outreach with multidisciplinary approaches to food, and to foodways—in social science, foodways are the cultural, social, and economic practices of the production and the consumption of food.
Food Institute faculty and staff also invite people on campus to work with them and collaborate on hosting events and gatherings, whether in their meeting and cooking spaces or elsewhere on and off campus.
“Beyond the physical hub for food systems work on campus, we convene educators to align our curricular pathways to offer solid interdisciplinary opportunities for our students,” said Farmer. “Departments, faculty and lecturers offer a multitude of topics that are relevant for food systems work, and we strive to host a hub to interweave curricular offerings and leverage the expertise of our faculty and off-campus partners.”
Undergraduate and graduate students have access to world-class instructors, research and pedigreed labs in applied food studies and food systems topics. For example, the Food Studies Certificate is a way for students in any undergraduate major on campus to study the foundational concepts of food systems, and then build out their coursework and internship choices in topics and disciplines they find most interesting.
“Many food studies students are passionate and are interested in the multi-disciplinarity of food systems work and research and we are able to provide a broad spectrum of opportunities, where students can learn and engage in ways that prepare them for careers in research and food systems work in the public, private and nonprofit sectors,” said Smith.
Indiana University is home to a rich array of disciplines where food systems and studies research and teaching are conducted. “Within the College and across campus, faculty from multiple disciplines are Food Institute Faculty affiliates, where they have access to colleagues and external partners working across disciplines and across food system issues,” explained Farmer. “Much of what faculty teach and research has real-world, real-time significance for students.”
“Working at the Food Institute has given me the opportunity to meet and collaborate with so many folks from a variety of disciplines across campus,” said Elissa Booras, an M.A. candidate in Anthropology and a Food Institute graduate student intern. “What has been so valuable is the chance to disseminate ideas about cooking, food, and sustainable food systems, as well as getting to learn about these topics from others.
For those students interested in growing food for others – that is, becoming farmers - Indiana University is part of the solution to community food systems through, for example, the IU Campus Farm and its in-season farm tours, volunteer opportunities, and the weekly farmstand (May-October). Further, work undertaken by the Food Institute and IU’s Sustainable Food Systems Science is a key part of growing next-gen farmers.
“Modern small farmers are urban, rural, backyard, indoor, outdoor, selling at the farmers market, selling online, self-distributing, and talking with buyers directly,” said Professor Farmer. “The more our farmers know and understand and are connected to the network of organizations and institutions that support them, the more viable their beginning farm business will be. They can start right here at IU.”
The Food Institute also offers myriad opportunities for community-building and community engagement. “In addition to the Institute’s space for gathering and cooking, we have co-working desk space where students can study, we hire interns, and we actively seek out opportunities for students off campus where students can experience real-time, real-world activity in food systems change,” Smith explained.
“Meanwhile, we work with other campus units such as Sustain IU to promote and procure local and regional foods for campus, and to address food insecurity issues through student groups, and in partnership with IU Dining,” Smith noted. “Our door is open for those with questions and interest!”
