Food reconnection

ASU seeks to ensure the community has food equity, access, and sustainable food choices, such as plant-forward, organic and Fair Trade-certified options. The university offers many programs and tools to achieve food-system sustainability across the enterprise, starting with Sun Devil Hospitality.

ASU Arboretum Harvest

• Student volunteers from the ASU Interfaith Date Palm Project, Changemaker and Mary Lou Fulton Teachers Collge courses pollinated 240 date palms across the Polytechnic and Tempe campuses, including ASU’s iconic Palm Walk.

• 14 Changemaker students helped fertilize the soil under citrus trees and date palms.

• 82 volunteers helped harvest and package 4,000 pounds of dates from 12 varieties of date palms. The dates are sold to the ASU community to support the ASU Arboretum and donated to community groups.

Garden Commons

The Garden Commons on the Polytechnic campus is a multifunctional outdoor classroom that embraces sustainable design and focuses on local food systems and community gardening. The garden features 18 raised garden beds, a resource room, a compost area, a citrus orchard and an outdoor pavilion. This space promotes the value of holistic food systems for all students through ultural inclusion, personal connections and shared learning. The garden staff and volunteers made these accomplishments during FY 2022:

• Donated 1,028 pounds of organic produce to local food banks and students.

• Logged 317 volunteer hours with 163 participants.

• Managed 18 events with 335 participants totaling 406 hours of engagement.

• Trained eight student ambassadors who contributed 111 hours of volunteer work.

• Hosted three courses that used the garden as an outdoor classroom for hands-on learning.

Pitchfork Pantry

• Served 4,800 students with weekend pop-up events. Starship robots delivered fresh and non-perishable food items from the Saturday pop-up pantries to 120 students every other week. This new offering helped reduce the stigma associated with attending the pantry in person. Students could choose items on the Starship app with delivery fees waived.

The ASU Arboretum partnered with a local citrus orchard in Mesa to rescue over 2 tons of Valencia oranges. ASU students, faculty and staff volunteers helped pick and bag the oranges to donate to the Pitchfork Pantry, St. Mary’s Food Bank and St. Vincent de Paul food bank.

Sun Devils helped deliver over 2 tons of oranges to food banks

Served

4,800 Students with weekend pop-up events.

Approximately 3,400 pounds of produce was distributed across the ASU metropolitan Phoenix campuses.

Donated 1,028 pounds of organic produce to local food banks and students.

Sun Devil Hospitality

• Launched the Cool Food Meals pilot in residential dining halls across the Tempe campus. The program highlights dishes with low carbon footprints based on metrics created by the World Resources Institute.

• The Learn Arizona event was collaboratively hosted by Sun Devil Hospitality and the ASU International Students and Scholars Center on the Engrained patio. The event featured in-season food from local farms as a lens to understand Arizona’s cultural heritage. The event's focus was the prickly pear cactus used to make both a nopal salad and a unique prickly pear limeade.

• Nacho Average Cheese Bar and Mindful Chik’n were introduced at station takeovers in residential dining halls. These plant-based alternatives offer lower-carbon options for our students.

• The Decidedly Green catering menu was relaunched to incorporate new sustainable event options.

• Approximately 3,400 pounds of produce was distributed across the ASU metropolitan Phoenix campuses through several produce giveaway events, including Fair Trade options.

• ASU continues its leadership role as the largest Fair Trade-certified university in the country. As part of this certification, Sun Devil Hospitality and University Sustainability Practices hosted several promotional events featuring Fair Trade chocolates and coffee.