Students hoping to keep their health resolutions through the semester can take examples from several groups on campus, which combine environmental awareness with good health and wholesome lifestyles. 

One of these organizations, Edible Landscapes, a project created by University of Wisconsin students Aida Ebrahimi, Tom Boyden and Aaron Conradt, seeks to connect UW students to the source of their food by allowing them to have a direct role in cultivating it.

Ebrahimi said she and the project’s co-founders placed large wooden boxes donated by F.H. King in front of Cole, Sellery and Smith Halls beginning in August of 2014 for students to harvest their own produce for free.

“I have seen a lot of students, just because they don’t have access to fresh food or cannot afford getting fresh food, eating Ramen noodles or frozen food,” Ebrahimi said. “I don’t think that is necessarily the best choice, and they don’t realize how much effort and energy goes into making those foods.”

Frank Laufenberg, the urban agriculture director for F.H. King, said urban farming projects like Edible Landscapes can help alleviate the amount of land and resources necessary to feed the planet’s growing population. To him, choosing sustainable ways of getting produce is a smart and environmentally conscientious choice that may help lessen future damage to the environment, he said.

“Urban farming is going to be a huge deal,” Laufenberg said. “As urban centers grow larger and larger, it will be really important that we’ll have food growing close by. A lot of infrastructures in American cities do have very available rooftops that can be used to grow food.”

Until greenhouses become more widely available for use on campus, most students will have to wait for spring to cultivate an urban plot, Ebrahimi said. In the meantime, students can decrease their dependence on unhealthy and unsustainable packaged and frozen foods, she added.

Slow Food UW, part of a nationwide movement, seeks to make wholesome and sustainable food a larger part of campus culture, Oona Mackesey-Green, the co-executive director of the campus organization, said.

According to the organization’s website, Slow Food provides $5 meals each week with a spread of wholesome and local food.

“I think [a lack of affordable, healthy food] is definitely something that people are noticing,” Mackesey-Green said. “I think it’s a problem that is experienced in other parts of the city as well, and I think part of that also has to do with kitchen access and time to cook. It’s not only about the grocery stores that are on campus. There are other food deserts around Madison, as well.”

For those on campus seeking to live a more sustainable and healthier lifestyle right away, there are easy steps students can take leading to positive outcomes, Laufenberg said.

“Maintaining a healthy balanced diet is at the forefront of everyone trying to be healthy,” he said. “A lot of Americans consume more meat than they need to, and meat takes a lot of energy because one cow is going to be constantly grazing. Pay attention to where it’s coming from and what it’s been fed.”