A number of Occidental Alumni have gone on to pursue food-related careers, education, and activities.
Alumni of Occidental, Bryce Rademan and Robert Wicklund, founded Spitz in an attempt to bring the Döner Kebab to Los Angeles while providing quality ingredients and fast service. Since Spitz's opening, the restaurant has expanded to two new locations.
Sustainable Harvest, a coffee importer that pursues sustainable practices from farmer to consumer, was established by David Grinswold. He also started the Specialty Coffee Association and has served on the International Coffee Organization's Sustainability Task Force.
Molly Burke '09 majored in Sociology and minored in Education. She also earned a Master of Arts in Teaching from Occidental in 2010. Molly is the Nutrition Education Program Manager at the SF-Marin Food Bank in San Francisco, CA. She teaches youth, adults, and seniors about healthy eating, covering topics such as food groups, healthy portion sizes, decreasing salt/sugar consumption, increasing fruit and vegetable consumption, and making the most of food bank products. She is also responsible for taking care of program management, which involves community outreach, class planning, curriculum development, staffing, budgeting and program strategy.
Laurel Caplan '14
majored in Spanish Language and Cultural Studies and minored in Urban and Environmental Policy. She is now working in Washington, DC with
FoodCorps, a nationwide team of AmeriCorps leaders who connect kids to real food and help them grow up healthy. As a FoodCorps Service Member with the Washington Youth Garden, Laurel teaches students K-5 about gardening, nutrition, and science through hands-on lessons, building and maintaining school gardens, and promoting healthy, local food in the community.
Dani Lyons '14 majored in Urban and Environmental Policy and minored in Critical Theory and Social Justice. She will earn a Master of Arts in Food Studies from Chatham University in Pittsburgh, PA. This two-year program focuses on a sustainable approach to food, with classes and emphases in many realms of the food system - production and agriculture, nutrition, access, policy/justice, and even food journalism!
Tyler Morgan '12 majored in Urban and Environmental Policy and Avery Henderson '12 majored in Sociology. Both Oxy graduates are co-founders of an innovative website called Sandwich Funk. The goal of Sandwich Funk is to bring together food, music, and people by providing delicious recipes and pairing them with hand-selected playlists, matching the music to the feel of the dish, its prep time, and any other interesting similarities.
Jeffrey Ross '12 majored in Economics and double minored in Urban and Environmental Policy and Art History and Visual Arts: Studio Art. He is a Junior Consultant at DakeLuna Consulting and a Program Evaluation Assistant at Little Green Fingers Childrens Garden Collaborative. Little Green Fingers is an innovative program designed to address the obesity epidemic in Los Angeles County by providing various services and creating community gardens throughout L.A. county designed for low-income, at-risk children and their families. In his two positions, Jeffrey works with DakeLuna Counsultants, the lead designers of Little Green Fingers, to gather input and meet the design needs of all community stakeholders, and evaluates the health and community impact of the program on gardeners.
The Urban and Environnmental Policy Department provides a detailed list of their alumni's post-grad pursuits, many of which involve food-related endeavors.
