Ryleigh Hickman and Tommy Fox are growing access to fresh fruits and vegetables for Illinois State University students through the new Redbird Fresh Market program.
Born from a College of Business Innovation Consultative Community (ICC) course taught by Dr. Peter Kaufman, Redbird Fresh Market (RFM) was proposed as a way to offer fresh produce to students whose access may otherwise be limited.
“I don’t think a lot of people know that behind the scenes are students who created this program and are running it,” said Hickman, an anthropology master’s student and graduate assistant for the Office of Sustainability.
Fox, a sophomore marketing student who took the class last year, presented the program to the Office of Sustainability and Event Management, Dining, and Hospitality (EMDH) last summer in hope of starting it as a new initiative this fall.
He was met with enthusiasm and support from both groups, and has worked closely with Elisabeth Reed, the director of the Office of Sustainability and an advisor for the ICC course, and Jeff Vargo, senior assistant director at EMDH.
The class researched a variety of solutions, including farmers markets, CSA programs, and a former program run by the College of Applied Science and Technology—Fresh Favs.
With a cost of $64 for eight weeks, participants enjoy eight to 10 produce items, which they pick up in the Bone Student Center. The selection has included miniature bananas, baby rainbow carrots, and sugar snap peas.
“After researching all those different ideas, they landed back on Fresh Favs because we knew it was something that worked here at ISU,” said Reed. “They just wanted to tweak it a little bit to make it more student focused.”
There is also the option to sponsor a student who wants to participate in the program but can’t afford it.
“Produce should be very accessible, but because we don’t have a grocery store around us, it’s hard to add fresh produce to your diet sometimes,” said Fox. “I hope that the unique types of fruits and vegetables that we have add a little bit of variety to someone’s diet.”
The Office of Sustainability plays a crucial role in this program. The RFM program is fully staffed by their student employees, and they ensure the program remains as sustainable as possible by using paper bags, disposing of packaging through the proper methods, composting damaged items, and donating remaining items to the School Street Food Pantry.
“Our whole mission is recognizing the impact on the environment of all of these smaller individual actions,” said Hickman. “We are helping students or staff recognize ‘Okay, I can reuse this, recycle this, or compost this,’ and get them in the habit of trying to divert from the landfill.”
Reed believes student-driven programs like RFM are critical to addressing food insecurity on campus and educating students on how to be more sustainable.
“Seeing other students be involved with sustainable initiatives, like Zero Waste Events or organizing the Redbird Fresh Market, is so important to furthering the idea that it’s not an inconvenience to be sustainable,” said Reed.
EMDH has also been instrumental in the roll out of this new program.
“We are giving them the space to create and distribute the bags,” said Vargo. “We are also providing them access to our buying power through Gordon Food Service, which allows them access to our prices and distribution infrastructure. I provide guidance on procurement, safety, sanitation, and operations, but they make their own decisions. They’ve done a great job with it.”
Working with Vargo, Hickman has led the procurement efforts for RFM.
“Tommy and I work to determine the food items we get based on the budget we have for that week,” said Hickman. “We try to maximize the amount of produce we can get in terms of variety while ensuring that the produce kind of goes together.
Organizers said the response for the program has been overwhelmingly positive.
“A lot of people have enjoyed the program, and they’ve already signed up for next semester,” said Fox.
This is true for Alyssa Flores, a student at Illinois State participating in the program.
“It’s been really great, especially with the pricing,” said Flores. “It makes it easy to try different fruits and vegetables.”
Registration for the spring semester is currently open.
