University of Pittsburgh
IN-48: Innovation B

In Fall 2022, the University of Pittsburgh’s Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation and Frederick Honors College partnered to create the ScholarCHEF program (Scholarship, Community, Honors, Ecosystems, Food), which evolved from a prior Honors Food Ecosystems Scholar Community (launched in 2019). ScholarCHEF connects students with faculty and community experts with a variety of expertise in food ecosystems.

Founded on interdisciplinary work started by MCSI faculty in 2021, ScholarCHEF is an active and engaged Pitt community deeply focused on student education that advances food systems knowledge by combining Pitt research and teaching with the expertise of regional partners. ScholarCHEF is also committed to practically engaging external partners to create solutions to grand food system challenges. ScholarCHEF both increases student awareness of and engagement with Pittsburgh’s food systems community and engages regional partners with overlapping sustainability goals.

ScholarCHEF is led by interdisciplinary Pitt faculty and staff members, including Dr. David Sanchez (MCSI + Civil and Environmental Engineering)and Dr. David Fraser (Frederick Honors College); it was initiated with the help of Corey Flynn (John C. Mascaro faculty fellow).

Unique in Pittsburgh, Pitt’s ScholarCHEF community operates by leveraging existing food system leaders and assets to enable interdisciplinary Pitt faculty and staff to mentor to engage students with experiences and opportunities (e.g., externships, internships, and service-learning). ScholarCHEF’s primary goal is to collaboratively advance the Pittsburgh food systems community’s knowledge base forward while serving the internal Pitt community and Greater Pittsburgh stakeholders.

ScholarCHEF builds on Pitt’s “Sustainable Food Systems” undergraduate course, which was established in 2021. The course brings together students from various academic backgrounds to learn about pollinator gardens, urban community farms, and healthy sustainable cooking practices; students also get hands-on work experience with local farms and both food apartheid and food justice. From 2021 through 2023, 44 students have taken the Sustainable Food Systems course. Prior to the establishment of ScholarCHEF, Pitt’s food systems education was limited to a week-long “Urban Ecology & Sustainable Food Systems” mini course for incoming first year Environmental Science/Studies students taught by Dr. Patrick Shirey (MCSI faculty fellow + Geology & Environmental Studies) and focused on the significance of the native pawpaw (a fruit important to Native Americans, European Colonists, and African Americans).

Pitt's ScholarCHEF program also supports various on- and off-campus events for students, which provides unique opportunities for students to engage with community experts within the context of the food access issues in the larger Pittsburgh community. ScholarCHEF sponsored events have included speakers on food systems, farm tours, cooking classes with local chefs, events addressing food insecurity, campus garden tours, and participating in the Pitt Farmer’s Markets.

In its first year, ScholarCHEF engaged 86 unique students across a variety of events. ScholarCHEF also hosted a dinner and discussion events to raise student awareness about food security. Examples include:
1) “Carbon-Tracked Dinner” - Each food item was served with information related to its greenhouse gas emissions.
2) “Build Your Own Zero Waste Meal Kit” night - Students assembled to-go meal storage kits including reusable utensils.
3) Visit to Triple B Farms’ Harvest Festival in the Monongahela Valley.

In 2022, ScholarCHEF continued to engage students on the topic of food systems including developing hands-on programming with the following student organizations: Quiz Bowl Club, Hydroponics Club, Food Recovery Heroes, Free the Planet, and Plant2Plate Student Garden. During the 2022-23 academic year, at least 187 students engaged with ScholarCHEF in at least one event, with 35 of those students attending multiple events. Students also took various cooking classes with local chefs at the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens’ educational kitchen. Additional video screenings and open discussions with local food systems professionals provided more student opportunities.

In Fall 2023, the first ever ScholarCHEF Urban Food Tour took 28 students to 5 local urban farms to learn more about the urban farming community and the significance of farms locally. In Spring 2024, ScholarCHEF will continue hosting farm workdays with community partners, lay groundwork for future collaborations, and continue delivering events to raise awareness on food and environmental issues on- and around campus.

>> Pitt Honors College ScholarCHEF website - https://www.frederickhonors.pitt.edu/student-life/scholar-communities/scholarchef

>> Sustainable Food Systems course - https://catalog.upp.pitt.edu/preview_course_nopop.php?catoid=210&coid=1134650

>> 2021 Partnerships of Distinction Award video - https://youtu.be/_DhBkFxty34