USF Future of Food Think Tank<\/a> launched in January 2025 with a bold aim: to build a university\u2013community movement
\n capable of reshaping Tampa Bay\u2019s food future. One year later, that movement has become
\n a network of more than 265 members and 94 partner organizations\u2014spanning community
\n agencies, government, nonprofits, and industry\u2014anchored by faculty across USF\u2019s 14
\n colleges and four food\u2011focused centers and initiatives. Together, they\u2019ve created
\n a level of collaboration that turns ideas into action and action into a shared regional
\n narrative.<\/p>\nThe think tank marked its first anniversary during the Community Resiliency Hub Stakeholder
\n Forum on January 30. Seventy partners used the milestone as a working strategy session\u2014stress\u2011testing
\n the concept of a campus\u2013community engine, studying hub models at UC Davis and Arizona
\n State, and shaping a localized roadmap centered on regenerative agriculture, education
\n and workforce development, food\u2011as\u2011medicine and community health, and food system
\n research and resilience. The forum closed with a public Commitment Wall capturing
\n concrete partnerships and next steps, signaling that the coalition is not simply growing\u2014it
\n is aligning, coordinating, and accelerating.<\/p>\n
That same co\u2011design spirit drives Sowing Strategic Stories, a new pilot project with
\n Dr. Tingting Zhang and the Novel Approaches to Agriculture working group. The initiative
\n pairs USF master\u2019s business students with local farms and food system providers\u2014Packet
\n Line Urban Farm, 813 HoodGarden, Homegrown Hillsborough, and Kitchen Wit Teaching
\n Kitchen\u2014to create research\u2011based marketing narratives that highlight the economic,
\n agricultural, and community value of emerging food production models. The pilot delivers
\n usable communication tools now while showcasing a compelling regional identity that
\n elevates the work\u2014and the worth\u2014of Tampa Bay\u2019s local food system.<\/p>\n
The Think Tank\u2019s first year also affirmed a central principle: data must guide direction
\n and impact. Poor diet quality is now the leading risk factor for death in the United
\n States, surpassing tobacco. Nearly 90% of patients want to rely more on healthy eating
\n than medication, yet fewer than half report receiving clear dietary guidance in primary
\n care. These gaps point to a critical Tampa Bay opportunity: align care delivery, insurance
\n coverage, and community infrastructure so nutrition becomes a consistent, accessible
\n component of health.<\/p>\n
That data-to-action approach was on display at Feeding Tampa Bay\u2019s inaugural Health
\n + Hunger Summit, where USF faculty Drs. David Himmelgreen and Heewon Gray connected
\n food insecurity directly to chronic disease. Their insights underscored emerging evidence
\n that food insecurity is now a measurable driver of poor health outcomes and a contributor
\n to the nation\u2019s leading causes of death\u2014helping frame Feeding Tampa Bay\u2019s shift toward
\n a health\u2011focused, food\u2011as\u2011medicine strategy.<\/p>\n
Building resilience also requires operational readiness. After the 2024 hurricane
\n season exposed vulnerabilities across the regional food system, the Think Tank\u2019s Emergency
\n Food Response working group worked to initiate a partnership with United Way Suncoast
\n to bring business continuity training to the Tampa Bay area. Launching next month,
\n sessions on April 7 and May 5 at the Hillsborough County Public Safety Operations
\n Complex will help organizations protect cold chains and inventory, plan for disruptions,
\n and speed recovery.<\/p>\n
One year in, the USF Future of Food Think Tank shows what coordinated growth can achieve:
\n a coalition that learns, decides, and acts together; a portfolio that turns research
\n into tools, training, and policy insight; and a region actively co\u2011designing the engine
\n that will scale what works. Year two has already begun with accelerating momentum
\n and a movement ready to build the food future Tampa Bay deserves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Miranda Mattingly, USF Research Development Institute The USF Future of Food Think Tank launched in January 2025…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-185984","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-tampa","9":"tag-tampa-headlines","10":"tag-tampa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}