The First Lady’s Food Lab serves as a platform for food studies and collaborative initiatives between students, faculty, and community members.
About the First Lady’s Food Lab
The First Lady’s Food Lab at Morven is named in recognition of the work of former First Lady of Virginia, Dorothy McAuliffe, acknowledging her commitment to supporting sustainable agriculture, local farmers, and ending childhood hunger in the Virginia Commonwealth.
Read More about the work of Dorothy McAuliffe and the First Lady’s Food Lab:
Virginia puts end of childhood hunger in sight (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
Dorothy McAuliffe put aside pomp as hard-lobbying Virginia first lady (Washington Post)
UVA Inaugurates Morven Food Lab in Honor of First Lady of Virginia (UVA Today)
Local School Field Trip Program
In October 2018, the First Lady’s Food Lab at Morven launched our first program with local Albemarle County Public School, Stone Robinson Elementary (SRE). In partnership with the University Curry School of Education, our team built relationships with the students and teachers in the classroom, focusing on learning outcomes students would need for their SOL’s. Students then had the opportunity to experience Morven farm first-hand!
The Food Lab has worked with a number schools in the Albemarle & Charlottesville area—please reach out to our team if you are interested in designing a K-12 field-trip program.
Virtual Programming
Food and Justice in Virginia was a conversation held as part of UVA’s Community MLK Celebration, held in partnership with UVA’s Lifetime Learning.
The story of food and agriculture in Virginia is inseparable from the story of equity and justice in America. This panel will address several ongoing challenges facing the United States food system, including ensuring equitable access to fresh, nutritious, and affordable food; protecting the health and safety of farm and food service workers; and addressing legacies of harm, particularly to Black and Indigenous farmers.
The Food Lab recently held a virtual panel, From Farm to Plate: The Impact of Covid-19 on Food, Nutrition, and Farming, discussing how Covid-19 affects our health and well-being, and how we might better adapt our systems in response to it. The panel involved members of the agricultural community, medical community, and local food system.
Future virtual programming is in the works, and will continue to explore the intersection of food, nutrition, farming, and food access.
Our Partners
UVA’s Curry School of Education and School of Nursing were a key partner in developing inaugural programming and the Food Lab Field Trip Curriculum.
Morven partners with the New Roots Farm, which provides land for former refugees to grow their own food. The New Roots Farm is a program of the Internatial Rescue Committee. New Roots Charlottesville supports refugee food security and aids in their transition to the community through gardening, nutrition education, local food access initiatives and small business farming. IRC currently manages New Roots Farm and a few community gardens around town, in addition to providing training and support to numerous additional locations.
Other partners include UVA’s Sustainable Food Strategy Task Force, a group of foodies across UVA dedicated to UVA’s sustainability goals and values.
