The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at SUNY New Paltz has invited alumni working in food-related professions in the Hudson Valley to return to campus for a panel discussion on opportunities and challenges they encounter in food industry careers.
The event, titled “Classroom to the Farm: The Liberal Arts and Food” will take place on Thursday, Nov. 17 in the College Terrace from 5-7 p.m.
This panel is the inaugural event of the 2016-17 installment of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences’ “Without Limits: Interdisciplinary Conversations in the Liberal Arts” speaker series.
Now in its second year, “Without Limits” seeks to reconsider, reimagine, and reaffirm the place of the liberal arts in higher education and civic engagement. This year’s theme, Food, makes connections among the many aspects of the liberal arts while highlighting the Hudson Valley’s proud agricultural tradition.
“Given the location of SUNY New Paltz in New York’s Hudson Valley, a geographic region with a rich history of agriculture and culinary innovation, we are in a unique position to consider and examine a wide variety of issues related to food,” said Kenneth Nystrom, an associate professor of anthropology and series co-organizer.
The moderated panel will feature three New Paltz alumnae:
Katy Kondrat ’11 (Adolescent Education – Social Studies), Manager of the Kingston Farmers Market. Katy Kondrat has been an active part of the Hudson Valley local food movement since 2005. As co-founder and President of Students for Sustainable Agriculture at SUNY New Paltz, she worked to create more pathways for local and sustainable food options on campus, and to build a campus food garden. She is currently Manager of the Kingston Farmers Market, which won Best Farmers Market in the Hudson Valley 2016 from Hudson Valley Magazine.
Jamie Levato ’03 (Elementary Education – Psychology), ‘06g (Literacy Education), Education Director at the Poughkeepsie Farm Project. Levato has served as education manager of Poughkeepsie Farm Project since 2010 and was promoted to education director in 2016. She has collaborated with the Poughkeepsie City School District to develop and implement hands-on farm and garden-based learning for children in the district, and to increase the amount of locally grown food in school meals.
Stiles Najac ’03 (Sociology), Food Security Coordinator at Cornell Cooperative Extension Orange County. Najac has worked in the area of food access for more than 10 years, working closely with regional farmers to prevent food waste and increase purchases of fresh fruits and veggies in schools, pantries and local businesses in low income areas.
The conversation will focus on each participant’s journey from a liberal arts education to career in the food industry, and insights they’ve gained along the way regarding the cultural significance of food production, distribution and consumption.
The panel will be followed by a question-and-answer period and reception featuring locally-sourced food and wine. The event is free and open to the public.
The panel moderator is Brian Obach, professor of sociology and director of environmental studies at SUNY New Paltz. Obach, who specializes in the sociology of food and agriculture, recently published Organic Struggle (MIT Press 2015), a book examining the sustainable agriculture movement in the United States. Obach has also written about sustainable agriculture in the Hudson Valley and how locally oriented food systems strengthen community and civic engagement.
For more information about the speaker series, including full panelist biographies, visit the Without Limits website at http://www.newpaltz.edu/collegelas/without-limits/.
