Bobcat Eats
A Food Literacy Connection brought to you by the Bobcat Market & Dining Services of UC Merced
Sponsored by UC Merced Dining and the Global Food Initiative
“Every bite of food has a story.”
The Central Valley of California has had decades of disparities in food literacy, access, and nutrition, despite serving as home to one of the most productive and profitable agricultural industries in the world. These disparities have led to societal inequities that have influenced public health and quality of life for Merced residents, and underrepresented constituency groups on the UC Merced campus.
Building on these existing efforts and partnerships, the Educational Food Literacy Connection Bobcat Eats at UC Merced serves to provide students, faculty, and staff with a monthly educational engagement opportunity designed to promote food systems awareness and access through informational sessions that feature local community farmers.
Bobcat Eats will encourage the campus constituency to source local healthy produce, while also building traction toward the campuses effort to house a weekly farmers market. This endeavor will aid in satisfying the UC Sustainability Policy requirement that mandates campuses to strive to procure 20% sustainable food products by the year 2020.
February Bobcat Eats Program
For the month of February, the Bobcat Eats Program hosted a two-day event with the Bobcat Market and Bobcat Eats Seminar that was open to all students, faculty and staff. At the Bobcat Market, local Merced Farmer’s Market vendor, Bruce Kinabrew, came to campus and sold his specialty variety raisins and citrus fruits. Students not only interacted with Kinabrew but also had the opportunity to experience the freshness of locally grown produce and learn the benefits of organic farming. Thanks to the collaboration with UC Merced Dining Services, on-campus students with a meal-plan and Catdollars were able to purchase Kinabrew’s produce and the Bobcat Market had over 100 sales. On the second day event with over 30 participants, Bobcat Eats invited Dr. Mario Sifuentez to discuss about how the global food industry has changed with time while emphasizing the need for local family owned farms. Attendees also had a chance to participate in a food demonstration put on by UC Merced Dining Services utilizing the produce from Bruce Kinabrew.
