Morven Programs Launches the First Lady's Food Lab

A Proposal for Programming and Sustainable Design

Morven’s First Lady’s Food Lab has been a year and a half long endeavor for the
purposes of expanding community and student engagement at Morven Farms. This engagement
has a focus on food sustainability efforts in combination with the Morven Kitchen Garden. The
Food Lab has been named in honor of our previous First Lady of Virginia, Dorothy McAuliffe,
for her strides towards a more equitable and inclusive food system.

Last spring semester of 2017, seven Global Sustainability students set out to create a
design for how to repurpose the space based off of the needs and vision of Morven staff, the
Morven Kitchen Garden, and UVA professors / students. After coming up with a phased
proposal, with multi-tiered options according to price, Morven decided to pursue the project. The
Morven team fundraised for the Food Lab, receiving $125,000 for construction and re-design.

This spring semester of 2018, two students have continued the project from last spring,
contributing to the design proposals and programming agenda, with sustainability, food justice
and student engagement as top priorities. We have formed a Programming Team and a
Sustainable Design Team to organize and delegate our efforts. Over the course of the semester
we have conducted 8 interviews, visited farms and community kitchens, hosted four feedback
forums, filmed a video, created a sustainability plan and received $5000 for future food justice
programming. The outcomes and deliverables from this project will guide the path forward for
future MSI Fellows, interns and other volunteers who inherit this phenomenal project. We hope
that this report will provide a comprehensive analysis and review of our efforts in order to further
develop the Food Lab.

Read the full report here:

A Proposal for Programming and Sustainable Design

Sustainability Plan 2018-2020

In the following sustainability plan, a team of UVA students have aligned UVA's sustainability mission with the mission of the First Lady's Food Lab at Morven. The space will serve as a platform for food studies and collaborative initiatives between students, faculty, and community members. As such, this plan will help guide Morven in meeting UVA-wide sustainability goals to steward, discover, and engage.

Read the plan here:

Food Lab Sustainability Plan