Furman University
SD-2: Food Education

Furman requires all students to complete two First-Year Seminars as a prerequisite for graduation. These seminars provide students with a first-year experience that requires them to assume greater responsibility for their own learning and prepares them for college-level coursework and analysis. Each seminar focuses on a unique specific topic, requiring intense discussion and writing about particular material. Some of the seminars focus on food or food systems, explaining how students’ food choices affect them, their environment, and their fellow global citizens. A prime example is the First Year Seminar entitled “Eating as a Sustainable Act,” in which students examine the relationship between them and the food they eat, how that food is produced, and the economic, social, and environmental impacts of eating. The students took several field trips to local farms to help define sustainable agriculture.

In all of Furman’s dining facilities, locally grown and organic products are labeled. There is also a large bulletin board displaying the health and environmental benefits of eating local and organic food. The display contains information about the local farmers from which our dining facilities purchase food, as well as seasonal availability of various produce and the amounts of food donated to local food banks.

Students have the opportunity to work at the Furman Farm, a ¼ acre organic-practice garden where students grow numerous crops with the aid of Farm staff. Here, students learn how to grow their own food and can see how such practices positively affect Furman and the Greenville community.