University engagement through local food enterprise: community-supported agriculture on campus.

摘要

Community-supported agriculture programmes (CSA) have emerged as an increasingly popular source of locally grown produce, animal products and processed consumer goods, and are growing in number and variety across the USA. Though CSAs can be found in a variety of settings, a less common but potentially successful venue in which to run a CSA is the university campus. Although universities present certain challenges for operating a CSA, they offer a number of unique advantages that can aid in the growth and success of the campus CSA. As such, university-based food and nutrition professionals may find that CSA development is a viable avenue through which to accomplish nutrition goals, such as increasing consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables. In this article, both the benefits (engaging the community, using CSA revenue, utilizing the university infrastructure) and detriments (working within university regulations, dealing with logistics) of operating a CSA on a university campus are discussed and 2 different but successful US university CSA models are presented.