College Students Discuss Cafeteria Choices, Sustainability and ‘Real Food’
College Aggies Online Scholarship Recipients also Recognized at Stakeholders Summit for “Agvocacy” Efforts
May 8, 2014 –”Pick a few things that are sustainable and tell us how that works, start marketing your success to us and we’ll respond,” said Miles Milliken, a student at the George Washington University (GWU) that joined three other students and Rob Morasco, Senior Director of Offer Development for Sodexo USA–one of the nation’s top food service companies for universities and corporations worldwide. The panel, entitled “College Cafeteria Confidential: Millennials in the Lunch Line”asked panelists who included Eric Estroff, a sophomore from Atlanta, Georgia; Jesse Schaffer, a senior from Chicago, Illinois; and Jennifer Weinberg a freshman from New Jersey who grew up on a cattle feed yard and still shows cattle. Both Estroff and Schaffer are heavily involved in working with Sodexo, the student dining board and the Office of Sustainability at GWU.
The panel, entitled “College Cafeteria Confidential: Millennials in the Lunch Line “asked panelists who included Eric Estroff, a sophomore from Atlanta, Georgia; Jesse Schaffer, a senior from Chicago, Illinois; and Jennifer Weinberg a freshman from New Jersey who grew up on a cattle feed yard and still shows cattle. Both Estroff and Schaffer are heavily involved in working with Sodexo, the student dining board and the Office of Sustainability at GWU.
As a result of the students’ background, all panelists addressed the complex issue of sustainability, and how we define that and many of the other buzz words out there surrounding agriculture.
While the college students were eager to share their viewpoints on hot-button issues like sustainability, they were also quick to offer helpful advice to Summit attendees and try to make connections.
“You want to reach college students today? We have short attention spans, probably too short,” explained Estroff. “Use Facebook and Buzzfeed and make it 30 seconds long. As a millennial, you have two minutes to get my attention, so be creative, be funny and use social media.”
Morasco also explained how Sodexo is making greater efforts to connect with college students on their campuses nationwide.
“At Sodexo we’re doing that using twitter on GWU campus,” explained Morasco. Echoed Estroff: “If you have a problem with your food you ‘tweet at’ Sodexo and it is fixed immediately.”
College students we’re also recognized this morning for their efforts in the College Aggies Online scholarship program, the Alliance’s signature scholarship competition for college students with an interest in agriculture. The program, now in it’s sixth year is meant to help college students become more confident, proactive and informed advocates on behalf to the entire industry.
Though the winners were formally announced in December, they were recognized this morning by Alliance President and CEO Kay Johnson Smith and the title scholarship sponsor, Lallemand Animal Nutrition.
College Aggies winners with program sponsors. (Sherrie Webb (National Pork Board), Emily Zweber (Agchat Foundation); Erica Ballmer (University of WisconsinMadison); Kate Griswold (University of Wisconsin-Madison); Nikki Little (Auburn University); Jessy Eggerling (University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Stacey Vignes (Louisiana State University); Annetta Young (Tyson Foods); and Jeff Ast (Lallemand Animal Nutrition).
To learn more about this session and other sessions taking place today during the Stakeholders Summit, please visit the Alliance website. You can also follow along with the live twitter feed at #AAA14.
About the Alliance:
The Animal Agriculture Alliance is an industry-united, nonprofit organization that helps bridge the communication gap between farm and fork. We connect key food industry stakeholders to arm them with responses to emerging issues. We engage food chain influencers and promote consumer choice by helping them better understand modern animal agriculture. We protect by exposing those who threaten our nation’s food security with damaging misinformation. Find the Alliance on Facebook and Twitter.
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