What it is

 

A collaboration between California FARMS Foundation, California State University Bakersfield, and Bakersfield College, offering an internship program for local college students to learn how to create healthier food products and menu selections with crops produced using sustainable farming practices.

 

Project Goals

 

Establish a long-term, economically self-sustaining internship program that will provide college students with a broad understanding of commercial agricultural production, processing, logistics; food product development, and the research required to bring healthier food products to the consumer.

 

Benefits

 

This internship program benefits the community as a whole. The institutions get the opportunity to expand their educational programs and offer an experimental element to the school curriculum. Students will gain work experience that will set them up for better career opportunities. Cooperating businesses, such as restaurants, have the opportunity to expand their food variety and in return can benefit by attracting more customers.

 

Areas of Emphasis

 

AGRONOMY:

¨ Production Practices

¨ Plant Breeding

An opportunity for students to learn the fundamentals of plant breeding and to conduct supervised experiments in order to create a variety of crops that result in healthier food products.

 

ENGINEERING:

¨ Food Production/ Processing

¨ Harvest/ Post Harvest

¨ Handling/ Storage

¨ Food Preparation

¨ Packaging and Delivery Systems

Engineering students will be involved with every stage of the project by helping find efficient ways to complete the necessary tasks.

 

CULINARY ARTS:

¨ Recipe Creation

¨ Menu Selection

¨ Nutrition Selection

Experiment with the different variations of the product to develop new recipes that can be used by any participating local restaurants.

 

FOOD SCIENCE & NUTRITION:

¨ Food Evaluation

¨ Quality/ Improvement

Examine the nutrition of the product and look into what can be done to make the product better quality.

 

 

MARKETING:

¨ Consumer Research

¨ Advertising & Promotion

¨ Product Distribution

Establish and execute marketing plans for products developed by the program.