Bachelor of Science
Sustainable Food Systems
Join a Legacy of Culinary Excellence
Program Overview
THE FUTURE OF FOOD is taking shape at JWU. Join this first-of-its-kind bachelor of science (B.S.) degree program that integrates culinary arts with sustainability, critical thinking, advocacy, and leadership to create tomorrow’s food leaders.
What Is a Sustainable Food Systems Degree?
JWU Providence’s Sustainable Food Systems program offers career pathways through which chefs and food enthusiasts can be agents of change around the world as food strategists, entrepreneurs, policy makers, nonprofit professionals, educators, sustainability officers and so much more.
Content areas include professional culinary training, food system design, agriculture, and research in supply chains, nutrition, science, and food policy. Exploration of environmental, social, economic, and political elements of sustainability will come into play as students critically examine issues in the production, processing, and distribution of food. The challenges of food equity, food waste, human health, social sustainability and social justice figure prominently throughout the curriculum.
Bringing Food Systems to Life, From Farm to Dock
Food systems are complex and interconnected. Sustainable Food Systems places an emphasis on examining our food webs, supply chains, and community networks by asking (and answering) questions about how systems can be made more sustainable or scalable.
From the macro to the micro, Sustainable Food Systems is hands-on when it comes to bringing food systems to life. Farm visits look at seasonality, sustainable agriculture, and hydroponic or organic vs. conventional growing — as well as the extensive resources it takes to get that food to your plate.
Students also get to meet fishermen, quahoggers, oyster farmers, marine biologists and others who make their living on Narragansett Bay. What does it mean to work sustainably within an ecosystem? How can chefs become better advocates for responsible use of these resources?
Find Your Mentor(s)
Our interdisciplinary curriculum provides a framework that allows you to work closely with chefs and other faculty with expertise in a range of disciplines relevant to culinary sustainability. Each of these mentors will help you refine your own career goals and prepare you to become part of a generational cohort of globally-aware food leaders.
Cultivate Your Own Path
Sustainable Food Systems begins with a core foundation in Culinary Arts or Baking & Pastry Arts. (Yes, you DO get to cook!)
Second-year labs include Cooking for Regenerative Foodways, which offers a critical investigation into the ways that socio-cultural and economic power struggles affect food and cooking, and Cooking for the Farmstand, a hands-on course looking at ways to localize and decolonize our menus — as well as how to utilize local products in season.
The junior year allows greater flexibility in customizing courses that align with your career interests. Choose from one of the following minors:
- Culinary Sustainability
- Environmental Sustainability
- Public Health
Or one of these areas of academic focus (Providence only):
- Policy & Advocacy Focus
- Writing for Development Focus
- Supply Chain Management Focus
You can also work with an advisor to customize an experience à la carte (so long as prerequisites have been fully met).
During senior year, you must complete an internship relevant to your area of study in sustainable food systems, including food production, supply chain management, public health, policy and advocacy, or other related topics.
Make a Career Out of Saving the World
Sustainable Food Systems encourages you to discover where your passion for food can take you. Communities, corporations, city councils and organizations of all sizes need leaders who see beyond the horizon — and who will help define a paradigm shift towards social, economic, environmental and political change.
Are you ready?
Choose Your Core: Culinary or Baking & Pastry Foundation
Your first year will be defined by core baking & pastry or culinary courses that make up a common foundation.
- BPA1701: Foundations of Baking and Pastry
- BPA1710: Principles of Cake Production and Design
- BPA1720: Plated Desserts
- BPA1730: Artisan Bread & Viennoiserie I
- BPA1740: Artisan Bread & Viennoiserie II
- BPA1750: Chocolate, Confections & Mignardise
- CUL1100: Introduction to Culinary Skills and Techniques
- CUL1210: Breakfast & Lunch Cafe
- CUL1320: Elements of a la Minute Cooking
- CUL1410: Contemporary Cooking & Leadership Functions
- CUL2510: Contemporary Restaurant Operations and Management
- CUL2810: Global à la Carte
Featured Faculty
Professor
Professor Lewis, Ed.D., teaches a number of classes in sustainability, where students learn where food comes from and actually travel our food web.
Associate Professor
After 20 years of professional cooking experience, including stints at Michelin-starred restaurants in London and France, Wesen joined JWU. He is also the co-founder and CEO of the nonprofit Jacques Pépin Foundation.
Senior Instructor
Born in Peru, Molinelli moved to the United States in 1998 to begin her career in culinary arts. As a chef, she has worked in Ireland, Asia, Peru and the U.S. She holds an MAT and a Certified Executive Chef (CEC) certification.
Sample Courses
As part of their curriculum, Sustainable Food Systems students at Johnson & Wales University take elearning courses through the Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) elearning Academy focused on global food and nutrition security, social and economic development, and sustainable management of natural resources.
Explore the full JWU Catalog course listing:
JWU Feature: Up from the Roots
When College of Food Innovation & Technology Dean Jason Evans left his hometown of Beckley, West Virginia, in 1998 to attend the University of Virginia, the experience was revelatory. It wasn’t just how different the world looked beyond the narrow valleys and verdant rolling hills of southern West Virginia, where his family has farmed and mined since 1890, but how differently the rest of the world ate.
“I assumed that everybody grew their own food, and that their moms and grandmoms canned and froze food all summer,” says Evans, dean of the College of Food Innovation & Technology (CFIT). He didn’t realize how good he had it — how much food sovereignty and quality his family farm provided him. “To have control over what you’re eating, and always eating fresh … I was very lucky.”
“Food is a practical tool to make the world better.”
The world has woken up to the importance of these values, too. Consumer demand for sustainable and local food has grown precipitously. According to the International Food Information Council, 59% of Americans say that sustainable production is an important factor in their food choices (2018).
At the same time, climate change, pandemic-related supply shortages and other external issues have exposed the extreme vulnerabilities of the system.
CFIT is designed to be a place where students come to develop answers. “Our students come in with this genuine and honorable belief that they can save the world,” notes Professor Branden Lewis, Ed.D., ’04, ’06 MBA. “They feel like the planet is broken and they can fix it.”
Harnessing the Transformative Power of Food
JWU’s bachelor of science degree in Sustainable Food Systems explores ways to transform our entrenched, largely industrialized systems into more resilient, responsive and dynamic networks that work for — not against — the planet.
Professor Branden Lewis, who spearheaded the program’s development, sees it as “a moral obligation” for chefs to understand how their professional practice (be it cooking, sourcing, product development or policy-making) affects the longterm longevity of our food systems: “We’re actually teaching students about the political economy that surrounds their food,” he explains. “You can take an action-based approach to address sustainability like no one else can. You have to know what your decisions mean for the food system, for your communities, for your workers.”
“I could sit here and tell you what’s more sustainable, or you can decide for yourself by experiencing it. That’s a transformative moment.”
The program’s structure provides an interdisciplinary framework to enable students to explore diverse perspectives at the intersection of social food justice, policy and advocacy, and environmental protection. Notes Lewis, “I could sit here and tell you what’s more sustainable, or you can decide for yourself by experiencing it. That’s a transformative moment — and you can’t really do anything except foster conditions to help create that moment.”
For Lewis, it’s an incredible opportunity for students to develop their critical thinking and become resilient learners — all in the service of shaping innovative solutions to issues like climate change, food loss and food security. (There is also a master’s program in Food Innovation & Technology for those who want to take an even deeper dive into these complex systemic issues.)
In the video above, Lewis and Compass Group Chef Aaron Perrott (a JWU alum) discuss the importance of sustainability in culinary education.
Do Sustainable Food Systems students get to take Culinary or Baking & Pastry Labs? Yes! All College of Food Innovation & Technology students take core culinary or baking & pastry labs during their first year and then move into brand new, cutting edge culinary and pastry labs designed specifically for this program. In addition, students can choose any lab or academic courses they want for the 24 free elective credits allowed in this program.
What if I have transfer credits? Like all programs, some transfer credits can be applied. Reach out to your academic councilor to see where and if your transfer credits can apply.
Does this program have internship or study abroad opportunities? Yes! This program has a senior‐level internship and plenty of study abroad opportunities.
Can students in this major take Culinary Sustainability classes? Yes! These minor classes are designed for students in this major. It is made up of 4 additional innovative culinary/pastry sustainability labs and one capstone‐style academic. More on choosing minors, focus areas or other electives in the question about types of jobs one can get with this degree ↓
What kinds of jobs can I get with a degree in Sustainable Food Systems? The career field for students in this program is quite broad, but can be focused depending on how you use your free elective credits. Explore CareersInFood.com
Choosing a minor is an excellent way to further enhance your areas of interest. The following minors are available to this major:
- Culinary Sustainability (Providence/Charlotte)
- Environmental Sustainability (Providence)
- Public Health (Providence)
The Culinary Sustainability minor teaches ways to navigate and lead in local procurement, community farm‐to‐plate relationships, and seasonal, sustainable cooking and kitchen management. Other options include becoming a chef‐owner of a restaurant or taking on managerial roles in institutional food service.
The Environmental Sustainability minor focuses on business sustainability applicable to various industries and fields.
The Public Health minor focuses on the nutrition, policy and community health side of the private and government sectors. Careers options range from local government health departments to private enterprises and NGOs/nonprofit institutions.
Offered in Providence only, Focus areas are thematic course groupings ranging from 9‐18 credits.
The Supply Chain Management focus prepares students to work in food supply and procurement positions (and training positions) for medium‐ to large‐scale food supply companies. Industry partners have identified knowledge in sustainable food systems as a desirable background that is highly sought after. Careers at local food hubs also benefit from this area of focus, as can food procurers for hotels, institutions and restaurant groups.
The focus in Writing for Development offers courses to teach grant writing and other skillsets needed to find outside funding for various industry projects or startups in a range of business and nonprofit segments.
The Policy & Advocacy focus offers courses in political communications, political theory, and the politics of food as related to social justice. This area of focus relates to the governmental side of food system policy at the local and federal level; opportunities are also available with private food companies in procurement, sustainability planning & strategy departments, or positions as lobbyists.
Students are strongly encouraged to contact a faculty advisor before choosing a minor/focus area or scheduling free elective credits.
“Once I began working on the farm, I started becoming more conscious about food waste, which was a big thing for me already. I could not think of a better way to learn about food than where it all starts.”VICTOR DELGADO '19Hopkins Southdowns Farm Internship
“Get your hands dirty. Go work on a farm. Learn what it takes to germinate a plant, to grow, to harvest. Learning what wild edibles are out there is also a good gauge for the seasons.”CHEF MATT VARGA '05Gracie’s, Ellie’s