Food Law and Policy Clinic Announces Harvard iLab Deans’ Food System Challenge

The Food Law and Policy Clinic (FLPC) is thrilled to announce the Harvard iLab Deans’ Food System Challenge. The Challenge invites creative and entrepreneurial students to develop innovative ideas to improve the health, social, and environmental outcomes of the food system in the United States and around the world.

Each year the Harvard Innovation Lab (i-Lab), a cross-University resource serving Harvard students interested in innovation and entrepreneurship, organizes a series of Dean’s Challenges that encourage students from across the university to develop innovative solutions to pressing social issues. This will be the first Dean’s Challenge sponsored by Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow, who is co-sponsoring the Challenge with Dean Julio Frenk of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Attorneys and students from the FLPC and the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation have been thrilled to work with Dean Minow to develop and plan this Challenge.

The Challenge seeks proposals for ideas in the following four topic areas: (1) Producing Sustainable, Nutritious Food, (2) Innovating in Food Distribution and Markets, (3) Improving Our Diet, and (4) Reducing Food Waste. We invite students, faculty, and others engaged in the food system to have an open dialogue and provide feedback on Challenge contestants’ ideas through our online crowd-sourcing platform (coming soon). To learn more about the Challenge, click here.

The Deans’ Food System Challenge will officially kick off on October 27, 2014. The kick-off will feature Dean Minow and keynote speaker Ayr Muir, founder and chief executive of Clover Food Lab. This event aims to bring together students, faculty, and members of the Harvard community to celebrate the start of the Challenge, discuss pressing issues in the food system, and create new networks in our community. Space for the event is limited; please register here.

In conjunction with the Challenge, there will be a year-long Food Better events series that aims to raise awareness about issues in the food system, highlight the important food system work being done across the University, and connect potential teammates for the Challenge. The Food Better Campaign will launch the week of September 29^th, with events every day that week and a larger launch event on October 3^rd, including a panel of food entrepreneurs and student leaders, followed by a brainstorming session and a reception at Queen’s Head Pub. All students are invited to participate.