Arianna Adorno-Williams
Nutrition and Dietetics Major
A Look At Gator Groceries
Another research project we chose Gator Groceries our Universities foodbank. Their food is delivered by SF Marin foodbank and they are located in the Cesar Chavez Student Learning Center.
They offer fresh and free produce and packaged foods and drinks to students and staff.
They are open Wednesday and Thursday from 1-5 by appointment and Friday form 12-2 pm they are open to all
On their instagram they show their weekly offering
Our inspiration was to find out what and why students may be leaving food behind and if increasing food literacy would help. We found out what foods were taken most which was ramen, bananas and potatoes. The foods taken the least which were turnips, pears and celery and dry goods past their sell by date.
We also found that the general demographic utilizing Gator Groceries were international students.
So as we gathered more information we learned a source of confusion was food date labels.
People in general don’t fully understand food date labels but international students were not really familiar with US food date labeling system for dry goods.
Best by, Sell by and Use by labels on dry goods are all created by food manufacturers and are based on when food will be at its best peak flavor these are not safety dates and if handled properly and show no signs of spoilage are safe to eat.
This does not include baby formula whose expiration date is to be taken completely seriously.
However all these dates were being perceived as official expiration dates by students.
And so this became the focus of our project in addition to demonstrating recipes to utilize Gator Groceries.
We then set out to assess food date label knowledge and created surveys to compile data. We set up our table at the end of the Gator Grocery line as students were coming out. We provided pamphlets on food date label info and food storage info as well. We also provided baked goods highlighting foods at Gator Groceries like banana chocolate chip bread that I made and a pear crumble the my classmate Kirstin made.
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