Class of 2017

Environmental Science, Restoration & Conservation Ecology major

Asian Languages & Literature minor

The opportunity that the experiential learning aspect of my STEP: Food class was the chance to affect the current food system in place. My group and I did this through a literal connection between the university and the outside community by establishing a network between Loyola's dining halls and greenhouse to an individual community kitchen, A Just Harvest. Dr. Schusler guided us on who to contact and how to help connect both groups to create a system of food recovery to go directly from Loyola to A Just Harvest.

While I had been raised to be aware of the difficulties that some people have with food security, I had never been able to be more than a volunteer with food packaging or distribution. With this project, I was able to be a part of the establishment of the entire process which gave me the opportunity to see the food go through from start to end. Having this hands on experience helped increase my awareness of all of the possible obstacles and solutions that are involved in the establishment of the process as well as giving me a new appreciation for each individual aspect of the system we and other food recovery/donation groups have created.

Through this project, I have been given a view of the interactions between large and small groups when pushing for sustainability. These connections and interactions were much more complex than I had previously been aware of and thus, I will be able to take them better into account in the future. In my field of restoration, I will be encountering these situations quite often an this project gave me a full view of what I can expect and experience in how to manage the situation well so that everyone can cooperate happily.