Posts Tagged: Policy

UC students assist ANR’s Global Food Initiative efforts

For the 2016-17 year, ANR has selected five UC students as Global Food Initiative fellows: UC Berkeley graduate students Gemma DiMatteo, Reid Johnsen, Alana Siegner and Laura Ward and UC Davis graduate student Mingxuan (Elaine) Liu. The GFI fellows will work with ANR academics and staff to address the issue of how to sustainably and nutritiously feed a world population expected to reach 8 billion by 2025.

DiMatteo, a UC Berkeley graduate student in the School of Public Health, is working closely with Lorrene Ritchie, Nutrition Policy Institute director. DiMatteo will help analyze data on the foods provided to young children in early care and education settings to help inform policies related to healthful eating in this age group. She will also work on the evaluation of newly developed nutrition standards being piloted in family child care homes.

Liu, a UC Davis graduate student in communications, is working with ANR's Strategic Communications unit to produce materials for nutrition outreach. For one project, she will work with Marisa Neelon, UC Cooperative Extension nutrition, family and consumer sciences advisor in Contra Costa County, to develop a series of “Money Talks” nutrition-education fact sheets for teachers.

UC Berkeley Ph.D. candidates Johnsen and Ward and UC Berkeley graduate student Siegner, are participating in the Graduate Students in Extension pilot program, sponsored by UC Berkeley College of Natural Resources and ANR. For students interested in careers in Cooperative Extension, they will organize seminars, workshops and training opportunities to improve graduate student preparedness for extension, outreach and applied research. The fellows will conduct an assessment to document best practices and lessons learned from the GSE program, which is in the last year of its three-year pilot. To share the outcomes and accomplishments of the GSE program, they will also develop a publication, policy recommendations and coordinate a complementary seminar.

The class – the third since UC President Janet Napolitano launched the Global Food Initiative Student Fellowship Program – has participants from all 10 UC campuses plus Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and ANR.

In addition to their individual projects, the students are invited to participate in systemwide activities designed to enhance their leadership skills and enrich their understanding of the food system in California. In January, UCOP will provide leadership training for the GFI fellows. In April, the group will take a field trip to the Central Valley to learn about UC Cooperative Extension projects.

For more information about the UC Global Food Initiative student fellows, read the article at http://universityofcalifornia.edu/news/student-fellows-help-shape-future-food.

UC World Food Day Video Challenge

To raise awareness of the depth and breadth of food-related research and outreach being performed across the UC system, the Nutrition Policy Institute partnered with the World Food Institute at UC Davis to sponsor the UC World Food Day Video Challenge. Students from all UC campuses were invited to submit videos up to three minutes long that featured UC research. UC Davis students Carlos Orozco-Gonzalez and Umayr Sufi won with a video about advancing the science behind drying and storing food to improve food safety in developing countries.

“We are wasting a lot of food, regardless of where we are in the world,” said Irwin Donis-Gonzalez, a UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Biological & Agricultural Engineering at UC Davis, who is featured in the video. “With Carlos and Umayr, we are combining biological and engineering sensing concepts that can be applied to solving world issues.”

The winning team received $1,000 and a trip to attend the Borlaug Dialogue International Symposium in Des Moines.

To view the top five videos, visit http://worldfoodcenter.ucdavis.edu/nutrition/uc-davis-teams-awarded-top-prizes.html.

Higher education collaborates to fight student food insecurity

Representatives of the University of California, California State University and California Community College systems met in Fresno on Sept. 6 to discuss food access and basic needs security for students.

As part of UC's Global Food Initiative, the Nutrition Policy Institute recently published a report based on a survey of food security among UC students at all 10 campuses. The “Student Food Access and Security Study” includes the survey results and UC's plans for addressing food security issues. CSU is currently conducting a systemwide survey of its student population and CCC is planning to conduct a survey of its students. UC was represented by Ruben Canedo of UC Berkeley, Tim Galarneu of UC Santa Cruz, and NPI's Ritchie and Suzanna Martinez.

After CSU and CCC complete their surveys, the group will meet again in December to discuss best practices to ensure food security in California public higher education.

ANR cohosts food drive

In recognition of World Food Day, National Food Dayand the UC Global Food Initiative, ANR, UCOP Staff Assembly and UCOP Professional Community have partnered with the Alameda County Community Food Bank to help feed the hungry. From Oct. 17 to 31, we are collecting food items in bins located near the elevators on each floor of UCOP's Franklin building, and on UCOP floors at the Kaiser, Broadway and 20^th St. buildings in Oakland.

There are two ways you can participate:

• Donate non-perishable food items to the bin located near the elevators on the 10th floor of the Franklin building
• Donate online via the ACCFB Virtual Food Drive website set up for UCOP at
  www.vfd-accfb.org. Select “UCOP” in the dropdown menu on the right side of the page and choose "10th floor Franklin building.

Donations will be collected and counted at 5 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 31. The floor that collects the most donations will win a $100 gift basket from the Oakland Farmers Market.

For more information, contact Suzanna Martinez, Nutrition Policy Institute, at suzanna.martinez@ucop.edu

Comments sought on proposed international activities policy

UC Office of the President invites comments on a proposed International Activities Policy. 

The policy is new and supersedes the 2005 Guidelines for the Establishment of Foreign Affiliate Organizations and Foreign Operations. The International Activities Policy sets forth the underlying principles that should govern activities conducted by UC faculty, students, and staff at foreign sites and in furtherance of UC's global engagement. It also outlines the issues to consider when engaging in such activities and the approval authority levels for international activity proposals.

The draft proposed policy is located on the UCOP Academic Personnel and Programs website, “Policies under review,” under the “Systemwide Review” tab at http://www.ucop.edu/academic-personnel-programs/academic-personnel-policy/policies-under-review/index.html. 

Please send your comments to Robin Sanchez at rgsanchez@ucanr.edu no later than Dec. 12, 2016.

Participate in ANR’s new Global Food Initiative projects

In July 2014, UC President Janet Napolitano launched the UC Global Food Initiative (GFI) and ANR continues to play a major role in the GFI. Two new examples are a special issue of California Agriculture that is in the planning stages and a food-research video competition for UC students that the Nutrition Policy Institute is co-sponsoring. A call has gone out UC systemwide to participate in these projects.

Special issue of California Agriculture

ANR's peer-reviewed research journal California Agriculture is planning a special Global Food Initiative issue for summer 2017. Developed in partnership with GFI leaders at ANR, UCOP, the 10 UC campuses and the UC-affiliated national laboratories, the issue will mark the third anniversary of the initiative's launch.

The issue will feature a collection of original research papers in the GFI subject areas: nutrition, food security, food sourcing, food equity, food literacy, food recovery, food waste, local food systems, sustainable agricultural production, sustainable fishery practices, sustainable urban agriculture and climate smart agriculture. A call for papers is going out to researchers throughout the UC System.

ANR researchers working in these areas are encouraged to submit papers. Please see the call for manuscripts for full details. Abstracts are due for initial review by Oct. 1, 2016, with complete manuscripts to be submitted by Nov. 18.

If you have questions, contact Jim Downing, executive editor, at jdowning@ucanr.edu and (530) 750-1352.

Food research video contest

The World Food Day Video Challenge, co-sponsored by UCANR's Nutrition Policy Institute, the UC Davis World Food Center and the GFI, is open to UC students. Students from all the UC campuses are invited to submit videos up to three minutes long that feature UC research. It could be about their own research or your research.

The winning team will receive $1,000 and an opportunity for team members (up to 3) to attend the Borlaug Dialogue International Symposium in October.

One objective of the contest is to raise awareness of the depth and breadth of food-related research and outreach being performed across the UC system.

Please encourage GFI fellows and UC students at your locations to participate by submitting a video by Sept. 7, 2016.

Details about the challenge are at foodvideos.ucdavis.edu. If you have questions, read the FAQs or contact WFC's Amy Beaudrealt at abeaudreault@ucdavis.edu or NPI's Ron Strochlic at rstrochlic@ucanr.edu.

Personnel policies for staff members revised

UC Personnel Policies for Staff Members (PPSM) revisions were recently approved and signed by President Napolitano.

The revised policies include following:

• PPSM-1 General Provisions
• PPSM-2 Definition of Terms
• PPSM-64 Termination and Job Abandonment
• PPSM-70 Complaint Resolution
• PPSM-82 Conflict of Interest

In general, the policies were revised to

• Consolidate the three termination policies into one policy document
• Consolidate the two complaint resolution policies into one policy document
• Add a job abandonment provision to the termination policy
• Align language in the termination and complaint resolution policies with the Career Tracks classification structure

You can view these and other recently revised polices at http://policy.ucop.edu/advanced-search.php?action=welcome&op=browse&recent=1.

Video contest to feature UC food research

The World Food Day Video Challenge is being sponsored by the UC Davis World Food Center, UCANR's Nutrition Policy Institute and the UC Global Food Initiative to raise awareness of the depth and breadth of food-related research across the UC system to reduce hunger and improve health.

The contest is open to all current undergraduate and graduate students in the UC system.

In three minutes or less, the videos should show how UC research relates to:

• food security
• food sustainability
• food science
• nutrition
• agriculture

...or other targets within the UN's Sustainable Development Goal #2. 

 UC academics are encouraged to invite UC students to turn the cameras on their research and outreach. If you're on Twitter, please tweet: Calling @UofCalifornia students! Produce a video on #UCFood research http://foodvideos.ucdavis.edu  

First place prize is $1,000 and a trip for up to three team members to attend the Borlaug Dialogue international symposium, which is held in conjunction with the award ceremony for the World Food Prize, in Des Moines, Iowa, in October.

The deadline for submitting videos is 11:59 p.m. PT, Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016. See contest details at foodvideos.ucdavis.edu.

If you have questions, contact: Amy Beaudreault, World Food Center director of nutrition and health, at abeaudreault@ucdavis.edu or (530) 752-7319.

 

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