Authored by: Lafayette College EGRS 451 group (Annie Mikol, Nicole Alrassi, Moussa Sarr)

Date: Spring 2013

Course Instructor: Professor Cohen

Project Links: Memo

Abstract: Our team created an integrated data management system for the use of garden harvest planning and procurement to facilitate the connection between dinning services and garden management staff at Lafayette College.  By examining the function of the “food loop” at Lafayette, a conceptual diagram of relationship between dinning services, food waste, and the garden developed by previous students, we were able to identify the missing “links” between dinning services and the garden.  These steps include planning, planting, harvesting, transporting and procurement of food between these two entities. After identifying the larger issue we conducted a project meant to improve the planning and procurement of food by developing an excel database to calculate a harvest timeline on the basis of planting dates, planting quantity, and various other factors.  This is a sufficiently complex system owing to the complex nature of garden management, however these timelines are required in advance by dinning services to develop a meal schedule and to ensure there is little waste of food from the garden.  Through this project we were able to create a functional tool that is hoped to account for this complexity yet remain user friendly. While we were not able to attain real data for implementation, it is hope that during its first iteration future students could work on identifying needed variables such as yield, days to maturity and advised planting dates.  Overall this system is in its primary stages yet remains a valuable tool in garden management.

Tags: EGRS 451, Spring 2013, Community Garden and Student Farm, LaFarm, Dining, Sustainability, Data management