Yale University's Sustainable Food Program (YSFP) serves as a hub for the study of food systems at Yale. Founded as the Yale Sustainable Food Project in 2001, the YSFP now runs two campus teaching farms, supports a range of different curricular and extra-curricular study opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate students, and offers a fellowship program for international and professional experience for Yale students.HistoryIn 2001, Yale students, faculty, and staff, President Richard Levin, and chef Alice Waters founded the YSFP with a focus on launching a sustainable dining program. The YSFP's pilot sustainable dining program at Berkeley College received accolades from the Wall Street Journal as the best college dining hall in the country. The popularity of the YSFP's sustainable menus at Berkeley led students enrolled at other Colleges to forge IDs to enter, as described in the New York Times article, "A Dining Hall Where Students Sneak In." The success of the Berkeley dining hall pilot led to the growth of sustainable dining options across the university, culminating in the establishment of Yale Dining in 2007.Responding to student demand following the establishment of the Berkeley College pilot project, the YSFP gradually added a range of opportunities for both study and practice in the field of sustainable food. Today, the YSFP works on Yale's two teaching farms, in the classroom, and around the world.Mission statement"On the farm, in the classroom, and around the world, the Yale Sustainable Food Program grows food literate leaders."
